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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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2003 @ 2:24pm

    Interesting that SCO was one of the licensees

    And that Microsoft is one of the only groups to pay for a SCO license.
    My Conspiracy theory - was there some under the table agreement to help make each other's licenses look legitimate?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Crapmaster T, 24 Oct 2003 @ 8:13pm

    No Subject Given

    Problem is that the licenses are to expensive, and too restrictive to be used in any productive capacity.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Tony Lawrence, 25 Oct 2003 @ 11:33am

    Judge concerned about Microsoft

    That the judge didn't have a clue from day one was obvious. Microsoft isn't going to give up trying to control the world. They have to be forced.

    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.





    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    aNonMooseCowherd, 26 Oct 2003 @ 6:30am

    Re: Judge concerned about Microsoft

    That the judge didn't have a clue from day one was obvious. Microsoft isn't going to give up trying to control the world. They have to be forced.

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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