Florida Class-Action Suit To Go Ahead Against MS

los furtive writes: "Circuit Judge Bernard Shapiro of Miami has ruled that Microsoft users in Florida can band together in a single class-action lawsuit to pursue antitrust claims against the software company. The lawsuit covers anyone in Florida who bought a personal computer with MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel after November 15, 1995."

Packing my bags...

[pnutjam]

That's it I'm moving!!

Lucky lawyers

[crow]

This is the sort of lawsuit where the end settlement pays off huge for the lawyers, while the end users typically get a rebate good for future purchases.

Remember the lawsuit over monitors that said they were of a given size but had a smaller viewable size?

I would put the odds of end consumers getting to see any actual cash at less than 10%.

Re:Lucky lawyers

[L-Train8]

While it's true that actual people won't get jack, Microsoft will end up paying millions. It's hard to say how much individual users were hurt. If Microsoft wasn't forcing OEM's to pay for licenses for every computer sold, regardless of whether or not it was equipped with Windows, how much did that bump up actual prices? I think that number would be low, as most people wanted computers with Windows. But it did hurt the market for alternate OS's, and that in turn allowed Microsoft to charge whatever it felt like, and that is hard to quantify.

So, customers get a coupon, lawyers get millions, and, perhaps most importantly, Microsoft has to pay millions. It's an imperfect sort of justice for a very complicated "crime", but it is a sort of justice.

Fear the wrath of Bill...

[g(zerofunk.org)]

any ideas as to the number of MS software audits that will take place in that state in the next few years? heh. g

Glad someone is paying attention...

[GreenKiwi]

Earlier this year, Microsoft lost its bid to settle dozens of private antitrust lawsuits by donating $1 billion worth of computers and software to the nation's poorest public schools. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in Baltimore ruled that the proposal was unacceptable because it would give the software giant an unfair advantage over rival Apple Computer, a major player in the education market.

I'm glad someone is paying attention and stopping M$ from further advancing their cause with their punishment. If M$ wants to give money to the schools, they can do so by giving them money that is not tied to M$ products. The schools should be able to buy Apple, Sun, IBM, Linux or M$ products (or whatever else).

These are supposed to be punishments for M$ not helping them secure market share. If they want to give $1billion dollars in software to schools w/o money, they should just do it.

Re:Glad someone is paying attention...

[dabootsie]

Aside from the whole leverage/stranglehold thing, they wouldn't be giving away anywhere near 1 billion dollars if they had their way.

They'd be giving away 1 billion worth of microsoft products. Which is to say, a 25-cent CD for every 200 dollars or so. They would be essentially chopping off three zeroes from that "fine".
Add to this the fact that under this plan of microsoft's, the schools would eventually have to start subscribing to continue using the software. They'd actually be profiting from this "punishment" financially as well as with market share.

Is it any wonder they were eager to push the proposal?

Other States and the EFF?

[Timinithis]

Well, it seems that this is going to go state by state and Michigan residents are out of luck with the denial of their lawsuit. Who will really benefit, will be any lawyer that is licensed in multiple states to practice. All the groundwork will be done after one case. Just copy and paste into new documents and change the names of the 'innocent'. Unfortunately, Microsoft won't even be a loser at all, regardless of how many states allow the class-actions to continue.

Maybe the EFF should get involved. If any lawyer from them collects big fees, they could put much of it into funding the fight against *AA/DCMA.

Count me in.

[Suppafly]

As soon as something like this comes to illinois, count me in. I hope they put an ad in the newspaper saying something like "Notice, if you bought a computer system in the last 7 years, you may be elligible for a huge rebate" or something.. there should be tons of people getting in on this..

Settlement: $10 off Coupon for

[ClosedSource]

Microsoft Bob