U.S. Faults Microsoft Licensing Compliance 241
An anonymous reader writes "In a written report card on how well Microsoft is complying with its 2001 antitrust deal with state and federal prosecutors, Justice Department lawyers said they might need the court to force Microsoft to act more quickly." The DOJ's court filing is online if you want to wade through it.
Question is: (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Well, what did we expect? (Score:3, Interesting)
So much for competition and monopoly law.
Re:You call this a capitalist society? (Score:5, Interesting)
Laissez faire ideals are things that can cause depression like the 30's. Without the government regulations, we wouldn't even have had a 40 hour week standard (even though many do way more than that).
The ideals of capitalism won't break down if MSFT is broken up -- MSFT itself has become like a government of its own, stifling free market. Breaking up MSFT can only do good to consumers, just like the breaking up of AT&T and Standard Oil did...
S
OEM licensing (Score:5, Interesting)
Section III.A. prohibits Microsoft from retaliating or threatening to retaliate against an OEM because of an OEM's decision to distribute or otherwise to promote any software that competes with Microsoft Platform Software. Unlike Section III.B., which can be (and has been) implemented programmatically, compliance with Section III.A. can be achieved only through training and ongoing oversight of relevant Microsoft employees. Microsoft has conducted extensive mandatory training for its OEM Sales group personnel concerning Microsoft's obligations under the Final Judgments, with particular emphasis on Section III.A. and other OEM-related provisions. Since December 2001, Microsoft has trained its domestic OEM Sales personnel at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and has trained its international OEM Sales personnel at regional training sessions held in Germany, Switzerland, Mexico and Japan. Training will continue to be an ongoing process, both via live training by Microsoft lawyers and senior OEM Sales group personnel and via online training tools that Microsoft has developed for this purpose. Microsoft's licensing and antitrust lawyers work directly with OEM Division personnel to address and resolve any ongoing questions.
Re:Translation (Score:5, Interesting)
hummmm. (Score:0, Interesting)
And you wonder where Gates gets his ideas from. Pay us or I send ashcroft after you
Pay us or I send BSA after you
Re:RTFA (Score:5, Interesting)
I had to use "set program.." to specifically say NEVER to use windows media player to get it to work - and yet the icons are still wrong.
I'm quite sure it's not a bug - it's a Microsoft feature.
Re:You call this a capitalist society? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, I call it a corporatist society. In corporatism, the government is charged with the maintenance of power of the major corporations.
What happened to laissez faire ideals, free market and all that.
In a laissez faire system, there is no concept of intellectual property law. Laissez faire is based on the natural laws of scarcity. Microsoft's monopoly is based on artificial scarcity established by our corporatist government through intellectual property laws.
Whether corporatism is the best course for our nation I will leave to other threads. I only intend herein to correct your misuse of the terms "capitalism" and "laissez faire."
Re:Reminds Me of the English Bobby Joke (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not so much a shoot-to-kill policy, it's more that they're meant to shoot only when the gunman is posing an immenent threat to someone else (ie pointing the gun at someone, or saying they're about to shoot). When that happens the armed police have to shoot, and to keep shooting until the threat has been removed (ie the gunman has fallen down).
If the gunman keeps standing and holding the gun despite being shot, the armed police will keep shooting them, and yeah five or so bullets in the chest tend to be fatal....
Re:What happen.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Alternatively, if the government decides MicroSoft is no longer vital to US businesses, they could declare that, since MicroSoft isn't following the settlement, the case resumes, and seek to have MicroSoft shut down.
At least they are making a little effort, I guess. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The whole settlement was a joke anyway (Score:3, Interesting)
With MS, its still one monolithic company with one head. Because of this the settlement is just a speedbump to MS. Except for the egos of the anti-MS crowd, the settlement does not make a difference in a practal sense.
Re:Reminds Me of the English Bobby Joke (Score:3, Interesting)
If I remember my history rightly, the SS was:
The ARU is a small (there are less than 100, as far as I know) organisation, that is very much accountable for its' actions. Every bullet shot has to be accounted for, as in: "I shot this bullet now because
If it wasn't accountable, I wouldn't have made the comment about the outcry over the "excessive" bullets used to kill people. See the other post in reply to my original comment for an explanation (I wasn't aware of the reason, myself).
You might call Britain a police state for other reasons, but to compare the SS to the ARU is simply untrue. In any event, I far prefer the idea of a small number of trained armed policemen to the idea of every man/woman in a police uniform having a gun at his/her hip....
Simon.
U.S. gov to buy open software... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Insightful??? (Score:3, Interesting)
In this economy, do you really think that any President would crush the 2nd (or 3rd?) largest company in the the country, if he wasn't forced to?
By its sheer size alone, MS has importance to the US government.
Re:Microsoft is immune to their whiny court orders (Score:4, Interesting)
I think its totally plausible that the administration be totally corrupt. Look at Abraham lincoln. Total power monger. Suspended habeas corpus, and the 'emancipation proclaimation' was just a PR move. And I'm sure several politicians can muster the personal deception to believe they're acting in good faith by not purusing Microsoft. Afterall, politicians are just better than average laywers, which is to say, better than average liars.
What's wrong with this picture? (Score:4, Interesting)
This doesn't deserve praise . This means that they have met the bare minimum of what is required of them in some areas. That's like being praised for not spitting on someone.
Not only that, the reason they were in court is because of ilegal activity in the first place.
So, in summary, they act criminally, get caught for it, are given a minimal set of rules to redeem themselves, and they can't be bothered to do that right.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But even with my low expectations of them, they still continue to amaze...
Re:RTFA (Score:2, Interesting)
Microsoft is not in compliance (Score:3, Interesting)
The Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition End User License Agreement, which came with my laptop, specifically states that I may return it for a refund, but Microsoft/Dell refuse to honor this clause.
Re:No new words necessary... (Score:3, Interesting)
I recently read that one of the big communist or socialist writers (Marx maybe?) said that fascism could be better called corporatism, so I see your point. OTOH, I think there is a strong conception (supported by the definitions of fascism at dictionary.com) that fascism is "a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government" - that fascism is about concentration of power with a small group.
In the US, we are moving toward a subset of fascism where the corporations and lawyers are the concentrated group. As such, while I agree that "fascism" is an accurate term, I feel that it is not sufficiently specific. For example, India's caste system and Australia's lack of representation of Aborigines also fit the above definition of fascism, but are not corporate oriented.