West Virginia Settles MS Suit, North Carolina Doesn't

DragonMagic writes "MSNBC carries this story regarding West Virginia's settlement with Microsoft, and dropping out of holding off for more sanctions against the software giant. This leaves just Massachusetts hoping to make Microsoft pay more than just a slap on the wrist." Actually, as an anonymous reader writes "in North Carolina, they [Microsoft] lost a class action suit so now certain customers in that state will be able to get their money back." $89 million is not exactly peanuts.

Punish Microsoft or make things better?

[ObviousGuy]

Microsoft is finding ways to make things better between the company and the states by providing licenses for unlicensed computers as well as vouchers for future software purchases and also paying of the states' attorney fees.

Should the correct attitude to have about this be one of bloodthirst or justice seeking? (If you can't see the difference, just choose bloodthirst).

peanuts

[Tumbleweed]

To MS, $89 million isn't even peanuts. It's a rounding error. Their stock value probably varies more than that every day. That's "walking around money" for Bill.

You may think it's a long way down to the corner drugstore, but that's peanuts compared to space!

Err, sorry, flashback there. :)

Re:peanuts

[mbogosian]

I can't quite remember, but I think it was Jon Stewart on the Daily Show talking about Ken Lay and whatever his "punishment" was/is/shall be when he said something to the effect of, "which concludes once and for all that crime really does pay. [Mocking parental scorn], 'you stole $100, now, c'mon...give back...a dollar.'"

Sound familiar?

Hammered on Through

[executebusiness.com]

Looks like MS has smashed through this whole anti-trust fiasco -- for the most part. I think this is a moderately appropriate legal decision from W. Va, because it shows they aren't just picking on a company. This is a good settlement, no matter what anyone says, IMHO.

This sum might be chump change to Microsoft, but it still isn't going to make the market suffer as much as a larger settlement would have. This is good news for all the wrong reasons. It's sad to think that the customers are going to take the

$89 what?

[Mr.Ned]

> $89 million is not exactly peanuts.

To who? We're talking Microsoft, here - how many _billion_ in the bank? Spit up among how many people? Plus, the money isn't automatically split up among all residents; each resident must apply and ostesibly prove that they bought the Microsoft product in North Carolina. Do you keep reciepts from back to 1995? Some companies might, but I barely have my Win95 floppies.

The article says that half of the unclaimed money will be donated to schools in the form of "computer technology" - any guesses on who's computer technology?

I wouldn't call this much of a win for the residents of North Carolina - looks nice on the surface, but that's about it.

WHAT???

[pmz]

$89 million is not exactly peanuts.

Bill G. uses more than this to refill his Kleenex boxes and TP rolls.

Ballmer shreds more than this for his custom-made mattresses and pillows.

Again, WHAT???

Fair but unfortunate

[Dachannien]

The WV settlement is fair enough to the state (their attorney's fees are covered, and they get several million in free products from Microsoft and other companies, though the article didn't say from whom).

The sad irony, though, is that WV can already get free OSes [kernel.org], office software [openoffice.org], and other products, even without the settlement. Because of that, this is an even huger win for Microsoft, and an unfortunate result for high school kids in WV who will continue to graduate while under the thumb of Bill.

Ugh...

[Poofat]

Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware. This refund day stuff/lawsuit stuff is crap. It is fairly easy to find computers that do not have windows pre-installed.