Court Rejects msfreepc.com Settlement Claims

mr_tommy writes "Neowin has posted a link to a court ruling (pdf) on the controversial MSfreepc.com website. The court ruled that claims in the Microsoft antitrust settlement made via the site were not legitimate, and as such all submissions made through it would be rejected. The website, operated by Lindows.com, attempted to use the Californian settlement against Microsoft to its own benefit by getting users to signup and make a claim. Lindows saw an opportunity to capitalise on the ruling by getting Microsoft to pay for users to have Lindows software and hardware; undoubtedly too bitter a pill for Microsoft to take. Microsoft filed suit against the website Michael Robertson, owner of Lindows and a strong anti-Microsoft voice, will undoubtedly be disappointed with the ruling. The 'legitimate' site for claims is still available."

Re:microsoftcalsettlement.com runs Apache...

[Kenja]

Wow, a web page run by a non-microsoft group hosted by someone other then microsoft is running a web server other then microsofts. Will wonders never cease?

huked on phonics wurked for me!

[kertong]

Microsoft filed suit against the website Michael Robertson, owner of Lindows and a strong anti-Microsoft voice, will undoubtedly be disappointed with the ruling.

sorry, but what does that mean?

Re:huked on phonics wurked for me!

[Kenja]

It means Microsoft said "can not!" and Michael said "can too!" and when the teacher agreed with Microsoft, Michael went home crying to his mother.

Re:Serves them right

[pla]

However, actively leveraging a misdemeanour by another company to gain a competitive advantage in a way such as that just wasn't on.

You just described the US political system in one nice, neat sentence.


Anyway, I think you view this somewhat more harshly than the situation warrants... MSFreePC.com did nothing more than tell people "Hey, Microsoft owes you money for screwing you. Do you really want to hand it right back to them, or would you like to use it to get the hell away from their crappy products?". This ruling suggests that they went too far, but conceptually, I see it as far more in keeping with the spirit of the original settlement than any possible result of filing directly with Microsoft.

Re:Serves them right

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't Jesus say that all sins were equally displeasing to the eyes of God?

Possibly, but some of us are rather more discerning than God.

Re:"Lindows" does a disservice to free software

[EvanED]

For some reason I'm reminded of this [bonitadailynews.com]...