Apple Protesting Microsoft Settlement Deal

from the with-good-reason dept

It didn't take long for Apple to read the fine print in the Microsoft California settlement. They've lodged a very vocal protest over the settlement, saying that it's unfair on multiple levels. First, if people don't claim all the money in the settlement, one-third of the remaining dollars go right back to Microsoft (not much incentive for them to publicize - though, I'm sure others will help with that process). However, the remaining two-thirds of the left-over settlement dough goes to schools in California, but not as cash or vouchers: but as Microsoft software. There are all sorts of problems with this. First, it costs Microsoft almost nothing to give out free software, so all the money really goes back to Microsoft. At the same time, they're now giving away all sorts of free software to schools, which clearly undercuts Apple's focus on the education market. Microsoft proposed a similar donate software to schools settlement two years ago, and I thought it was pretty sneaky at the time. While it's nice for schools, the schools really have nothing to do with the crime the company is accused of committing. They're simply buying their way out of trouble by saying "here, we'll donate some software to schools to show what a good corporate citizen we are...".