Judge Concerned About Microsoft Licenses
from the following-the-rules dept
The judge who approved the slap-on-the-wrist settlement against Microsoft for anti-trust violations has just noticed that one of the provisions - that Microsoft license its technology to others - is barely being used. In fact, only nine licenses have been agreed to and the judge wants to know why. Microsoft says more are coming, but their aptly named lawyer Rick Rule points out that they're following the rules precisely, and they (of course) clearly have done nothing wrong. Maybe it's beginning to occur to the judge that these sorts of licenses (despite being called "central" to the settlement) had little to do with what the case was really about.
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Interesting that SCO was one of the licensees
My Conspiracy theory - was there some under the table agreement to help make each other's licenses look legitimate?
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No Subject Given
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Judge concerned about Microsoft
I'm still of the opinion that a breakup into an OS and an application company would have been the right thing to do. It certainly wouldn't have hurt the stockholders, it would probably help competing OSes, and it would make the worst of their abuses much more difficult.
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Re: Judge concerned about Microsoft
The problem is that by the time MS does rule the world, it will be too late to do anything about it. Democracy will be dead because MS will control the voting machines (either directly or indirectly through the operating system) and make the vote come out in its favor.
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