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Microsoft Government The Courts United States Your Rights Online News

Microsoft Settles Six Class-Action Suits 171

Posted by timothy from the cost-of-doing-business dept.
Bootsy Collins writes "Microsoft has reached a settlement in class-action lawsuits filed against them by five states and the District of Columbia. Two of the six settlements have already been approved by the relevant courts. The settlements would provide $200 million in vouchers to past purchasers of Microsoft software. The vouchers can be used to purchase hardware, software, or training; suprisingly (given plaintiffs' willingness to roll over on this issue in the past), vouchers used for software need not be used to purchase Microsoft products. More on this story from the Washington Post as well as many other news sources."
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Microsoft Settles Six Class-Action Suits More

Microsoft Settles Six Class-Action Suits

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  • Wow man, you gotta love that. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mindstrm ( 20013 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:29PM (#7334550)
    I mean, it always comes down to vouchers.

    They gave away some software.. OHH THE PAIN. HOW MUCH IT HURTS.

    Keeps their marketshare up, doesn't really cost them any real capital, just a slight market dilution, and so on. Not like, say, 200 million in auto parts.

    It should have been CASH.
    • I'm still waiting for the Canadian Tire version of Microsoft: Billy Bucks.

    • Re:Wow man, you gotta love that. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by randyest ( 589159 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:47PM (#7334652) Homepage
      RTFS: The vouchers can be used to purchase hardware, software, or training; suprisingly (given plaintiffs' willingness to roll over on this issue in the past), vouchers used for software need not be used to purchase Microsoft products.

      Not as good as cash, sure, but not as meaningless as a voucher for MS software.
    • suprisingly (given plaintiffs' willingness to roll over on this issue in the past), vouchers used for software need not be used to purchase Microsoft products.

      You can use this voucher to purchase any operating system for your PC, and it doesnt have to be Microsoft!

      From parent post: It should have been CASH.

      Class action suits are like trading in games at Electronics Boutique, GameStop, etc.- you get more bang for your buck with the credit than with cash. Considering all the people involved are only

      • It used to be that class action suits were a way to for4ce buisnesses to change, they end up paying some money (not a killer amount for them) and the people don't get much, but the company has their reputation a little tarnished by the suit, the get some bad PR, and they see that people don't like being treated that way. The problem now is that class action suits don't make the companies change. In this case, for MS it's just another suit, that most people don't care about and tarnishs a reputation that i

  • Oh Boy! Vouchers! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by FuzzyDaddy ( 584528 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:30PM (#7334555) Journal
    I mean, really. Even if it is for third party stuff. It was cash when the plantiff's were overcharged, shouldn't it be cash when it's returned?

    • Re:Oh Boy! Vouchers! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Liselle ( 684663 )
      1) Use a voucher to buy a bunch of software from Wal-mart, or other retail chain with below-average intelligence Customer Service. 2) Return said software, unopened, for merchandise credit. 3) Profit?

    • Re:Oh Boy! Vouchers! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:56PM (#7334695) Homepage Journal
      "It was cash when the plantiff's were overcharged, shouldn't it be cash when it's returned?"

      Uh, if you refund money from a monopoly, what's to prevent that money from going right back to the monopoly? At least, in this case, it gives people a chance to try out alternatives.

      It's a little more complicated than that, though. According to the final ruling in the anti-trust case, Microsoft isn't guilty of creating a monopoly, they're guilty of maintaining it. The implication there is that at some point, people said "We want Microsoft" and found the price fair. If they agreed to pay the price, why should they get cash back? Let the buyer beware.

      In any case, I'm not all that surprised that it turned out this way. Silver lining, folks. Non-Microsoft products get an audience they didn't have before, and schools benefit too.
      • Uh, if you refund money from a monopoly, what's to prevent that money from going right back to the monopoly?

        Ermm... are you saying they shouldn't give out money, because people may spend it on Microsoft products?

        The idea of being illegally overcharged, then given a refund of a "coupon" instead of money, seems unfair. If my gas utility manipulates the price of natural gas, I'll still heat my house. Just because they were found to be price gouging does not mean that either (1) I will not be using natural

        • Re:Oh Boy! Vouchers! (Score:3, Interesting)

          by NanoGator ( 522640 )
          "Ermm... are you saying they shouldn't give out money, because people may spend it on Microsoft products?"

          Sort of. I meant that in a more general sense than just Microsoft. The thing is, when I picture a monopoly, Microsoft is not the first company that comes to mind. I think about the way phone companies used to be. Things that are part of your must have list that you end up paying for month to month. If I were to get a refund from AT&T, that money'd likely go towards paying my phone bill. Or m
          • Good comment! I totally agree. I run a leagal purchased copy of Win 2K on 1 of my home computers. I'm not upset at the prices I paid, because I knew it, i decided that for the things I needed to run (which required windows) it was worth the price tag. On other of my computers I have decided that WinXP is too expensive and since I have 1 machine running 2K which can still run the programs that I had to have running in windows, i'm not spending money on it. Think about this in terms of buying a house....

      • Re:Oh Boy! Vouchers! (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Sj0 ( 472011 )
        To be fair, most people found the price to be right only because they didn't have to pay for it. I mean, who would go out of their way to fork over 200 dollars for a copy of Windows XP or 400(That was what it was costing the chain back when I was working retail) for a copy of Office, when they can go to their local computer geek, announce proudly, "Burn me a copy of Windows and Office, Geek!" and recieve both for the princely sum of 10 dollars for the media?

        I bet that if Microsoft somehow found itself with
        • "I bet that if Microsoft somehow found itself with a way to make people pay for their software, MS Office would magically find itself displaced by something like Sun Openoffice."

          What's stopping people from using Sun or OpenOffice anyway?

          Maybe I'm just tired here, but I'm baffled by why you were modded up as interesting. Microsoft's Office line is quite profitable. It also is quite useful. To be displaced by OpenOffice, it would have to be better and I mean significantly better than Office. (we call t
          • You do realize how much Office costs, right?

            If it wasn't stolen so often, no home users would use it at all. It's only profitable because of business markets, who have no choice but to buy it, lest they get BSA'd. I was talking about home users.

        • Re:Oh Boy! Vouchers! (Score:3, Insightful)

          by mugnyte ( 203225 ) *
          I bet that if Microsoft somehow found itself with a way to make people pay for their software, MS Office would magically find itself displaced by something like Sun Openoffice

          Yes and no. MS would lose market share only to the point where they started reducing the price, or more likely, bundling other applications into it (and then removing any other method to buy them). MS is trying to secure your purchase as hard as they can, actually.
      • They aren't guilty of maintaining a monopoly. According to the appeals court ruling, they only were established as a monopoly. Monopolies aren't illegal. What is illegal is to either 1) create barriers of entry to competitors that might take away your monopoly or 2) leverage your monopoly to create monopolies in other areas.

        Because MS settled with the DOJ after the case went back to the trial court level, the court never got to determine whether MS did anything illegal from their monopoly. Hopefully, the j

  • ha ha ha...all the way to the bank (Score:3, Insightful)

    by donnz ( 135658 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:31PM (#7334563) Homepage Journal
    I know others will point this out - but when will MS actually be punished for persistent illegalities rather than "giving away" stuff of "$$$" value that they claim a tax refund on?

    What happened to three strikes? Where are the orange jumb suits and chains?

    They are obviously serial offenders who see this sort of thing as a small cost of doing business.
    • " I know others will point this out - but when will MS actually be punished for persistent illegalities rather than "giving away" stuff of "$$$" value that they claim a tax refund on?"

      Well, the government basically does not see Microsoft as doing anything wrong, not really. Before the current administration took over, they telegraphed their desire to see antitrust actions against Microsoft done away with.

      You and I can read the antitrust regulations and see obvious violations. Serial offenders? Absolu

    • Where are the orange jumb suits and chains?
      I'm not sure, but I do know the people in white jump suits are coming to get you for using M$ Word's spellchecker on your /. post ... :)
    • Do you have kids? If so pull them together and tell them that crime pays big time. Tell them ethics, morals and laws don't matter as long as you can make more money. Tell them that the great thing about America is that the rich are not bound by the same laws as the rest of us.

      These are valuable lessons to teach your kids. Without a healthy disregard for morals or ethics or law your kids will never be another Bill Gates.
  • The Register had this link [theregister.co.uk] up on the slashdot sidebar about 5 hours ago :P

    You know, if anyone wanted yet another take on things.

  • $200 million (Score:5, Interesting)

    by b17bmbr ( 608864 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:32PM (#7334568)
    wow, that's like what, 3 minutes interest on their $40 billion in the bank. that'll really set them back a ways.
    ...
    ...
    ...
    ...
    they're back.

  • And for a more utilitarian remedy ... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by chessnotation ( 601394 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:36PM (#7334593)
    MS should be made to host a free, high bandwidth FTP site that mirrors all of the current distributions of Linux and similar free OS software. If nothing else, this would in part make up for all the money received by MS from their unfair "Microsoft tax" charged on nearly every commercial x86 PC; a tax paid for no services whatsoever by those who use only Linux, *BSD, or the like on said machine.

  • That's great (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:39PM (#7334607)
    vouchers used for software need not be used to purchase Microsoft products.

    But how much do you bet they will anyway?

    Like: Hey, we've got all this money we can do whatever we want with : how about we go get new computers? guess what's installed on the computers that will be paid in the machines' price tag?

    Unless people massively buy non-Intel boxes and/or Unix software, I'm willing to bet this will mean more money in the bank and more market penetration for Microsoft. Even if Linux, BSD or some other non-Windows OSes are actively promoted, you'll find a lot of Microsoft keyboards or mice in the hardware.

    How could it be otherwise? Microsoft has the market so well cornered that sooner or later, a lot of the settlement money will come back to them.
      • Like: Hey, we've got all this money we can do whatever we want with : how about we go get new computers? guess what's installed on the computers that will be paid in the machines' price tag?

      You know, Walmart.com still offers cheap computers ($199 I think it is) without MS Windows on them. Perhaps we should encourage them to advertise this little fact (and the pricing) heavily in the states/D.C. where the vouchers will be issued. Of course that'd probably royally piss Microsoft off, but I don't think

    • Apple? (Score:1)

      by rtv ( 567862 )
      Apple machines don't come with Windows. They don't even come with IE any more. Use an alternative to Office and you are MS Free, plus you have some great Apple apps _and_ all the UNIX software you can, er, eat. I hope Apple step up and take the vouchers.
    • XP cost $110 minimum retail and it does nothing for you but run screen savers and solitair. Office cost about $400. When you build a custom computer, $500 makes the difference between getting a junky Celeron and a spiffy P4 with all the trimmings like dual channel 400 DDR memory and an 800MHz FSB. It could also mean the difference between the cost of a Duron or an Athlon XP or Athlon 64 systems. How many people really need M$ Office so bad they would make THAT choice?

      Debian / Open Office and nice hardw

      • Why does anyone need to go from a "junky Celeron" to a "spiffy P4"? Only two mainstream reasons (Open Office, Mozilla, Email, etc., do just fine with "junky Celerons")--video editing and games. How many games and video editing software are available for Linux?
    • I'm willing to bet this will mean more money in the bank and more market penetration for Microsoft

      Well, the vouchers are going to "past purchasers of Microsoft software". Therefore, in the vast majority of cases, they're going to be used to upgrade or supplement existing MS software owned by these people. They're not going to increase market share at all.

  • The Lawyer's Should be Paid in Vouchers (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:41PM (#7334619)
    The lawyers who agreed to this settlement should be paid in vouchers. Let this happen a couple times and maybe some proper settlements would be reached.

    • Re:The Lawyer's Should be Paid in Vouchers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ObligatoryUserName ( 126027 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @09:42PM (#7334919) Journal
      Hey, that's no joke. These voucher class action settlements are horrible for consumers. When I sent money to the effort to free the sources for Blender [blender.org] I used Western Union. A month or so ago I got a letter telling me that there was a class action suit against Western Union because when they were transfering money to other countries (Blender is based in the Netherlands) they were making a secret profit on the currency conversions. I was entitled to a settlement in the form of a voucher that could be used for future Western Union transactions. I'm sure this is a relevant settlement to somebody, but I have no plans to ever use Western Union again. The lawyers got rich, the company was forced to do unwanted promotional mailings (the vouchers are so small that they're more like coupons than a punishment) and the costs got passed on to consumers. Anymore, class action lawsuits seem more like oil speculation and less like civil justice.
    • The lawyers who agreed to this settlement should be paid in vouchers.

      +187, Insightful

  • Dear Bill Gates, (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mononoke ( 88668 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:43PM (#7334634) Homepage Journal
    Please find enclosed $200 million dollars worth of vouchers redeemed on hardware purchases from Apple Computer. Please contact our Accounts Receivable department for accounts to wire the money to.

    Thank you very much for the business.

    Sincerely,
    Steve Jobs

  • Great deal there (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mcc ( 14761 ) <amcclure@purdue.edu> on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:44PM (#7334640) Homepage
    $200 million in exchange for which they get to rule the computer industry and do absolutely anything they like, and the government bodies that are supposed to periodically stop in and enforce anti-trust laws will look the other way, because Microsoft's already had its "punishment".

    For $200 million? That sounds like a pretty damn good deal to me.

    Especially when you have the amount of money in the bank MS does. I mean, hell, $200 million is what they spent on keeping the x-box disaster afloat in just the first quarter of this year alone [infoworld.com].

    Would you like a bag of ice for that wrist there, Microsoft?

    Those were the last of the bits of the U.S. government holding out on actually holding MS accountable instead of just settling with them, right? Is the EU still going forward with anything?

  • Plaintiff's "willingness to roll over" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by seanadams.com ( 463190 ) * on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @08:46PM (#7334647) Homepage
    That's what always gets me about these Microsoft suits. MSFT always says "we're guilty, but don't punish us because it'll hurt our business!" and somehow this is taken as a legitimate argument in every single case. "Willingness" to roll over indeed... that's why is called a fscking SENTENCE... you know, a PUNISHMENT!
    • This is the illogical consequence of a society too taken with "free capitalism" and without grounds in the reality of economic greed: people will do bad things to get money, if it is the most important thing in society. How quickly we forget the lessons of the "Robber Barons."
      • Mod this post down.

        If it weren't for Gates and Windows, the net wouldn't be what it is today.

        Then again, remember Steve Martin's quote from (almost) decades ago:

        I believe that Ronald Reagan can make this country what it once was...
        ... an arctic region covered with ice.

        PS: That quote may not be exact.
        • If it weren't for Gates and Windows, the net wouldn't be what it is today.

          What, you mean a cesspool of vendor-lock-in battles, viruses, worms, and incompatible standards?

          • If it weren't for Gates and Windows, the net wouldn't be what it is today.

            What, you mean a cesspool of vendor-lock-in battles, viruses, worms, and incompatible standards?

            I suppose. Every new development has its bugs, and the internet might just be the biggest development ever. But if the current Windows-using population never got to the net would it now be so prominent in the minds of virtually everyone on the planet?

            How many Unix/Linux promoters would have ever been heard of outside of select, ig
            • I suppose. Every new development has its bugs, and the internet might just be the biggest development ever. But if the current Windows-using population never got to the net would it now be so prominent in the minds of virtually everyone on the planet?

              Yes. the internet was inevitable.
              Plenty of windows users were on the internet long before microsoft woke up and realized it existed. They did this through third party applications.

              You might notice those third parties no longer exist (for the most part).
              Tha
  • Considering that only 2 of 3 people ever redeem vouchers from retail stores, what percentage will ever bother with this? I bet very few will ever know they have the opportunity, and even less will redeem the voucher.... sad way to do the settlement, imho.
      • Considering that only 2 of 3 people ever redeem vouchers from retail stores, what percentage will ever bother with this? I bet very few will ever know they have the opportunity, and even less will redeem the voucher.... sad way to do the settlement, imho.

      I thought of that too. Maybe they'll make Microsoft mail the vouchers directly to everyone they have in their registration databases, that'd up the redemption quotient a lot. I remember back when Kodak got sued by Polaroid over their instant cameras

    • small vouchers (Score:2, Interesting)

      by mnemonic_ ( 164550 )
      I wonder how much the largest voucher is worth. In the $202 million settlement here in Florida, the largest voucher is worth a whopping $12.
  • Bu it reminds me of this joke, well, it's actually a scam that someone supposedly pulled somewhere, sometime ago...
    A company is established dealing with adult products
    over the internet. The company has a fairly innocent name, nothing too vulgar. People buy their product and after a month of waiting they receive a cheque from "Newest Arse Penetration Techniques and Devices
    Inc" with a full refund and a letter saying that the prodcut is no longer available, sorry.
    How many people will cash that cheque ?
  • Is that $200 in today's software market, or what $200 could have bought you in a truly competitive market? That's what these class-action suits are supposed to be all about, right?
  • I signed up on the class action suit against MS (in CA) and still have not gotten anything (they were supposed to mail it). Some good winning a lawsuit against these guys does.
  • ...thats like, 10025062 units of Debian that the plaintiffs can use to give to family and friends.

  • I don't know about your (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Analog Kid ( 565327 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @09:05PM (#7334752)
    but, it might have turned out differently, if lets say Gore was elected over Bush. Cliton/Gore Administration, were pushing for a break-up which should have happened, it did to Standard Oil, it should have happend to Microsoft. Ofcourse we got George Bush. A rich Repubican who would hate to loose the hefty amound of money that his party gets [opensecrets.org]. Sure the Democrats may not be much better, but that mentality that voting for Green is a vote wasted has got to stop.

    What good really has come out of Microsoft in lets say the past 5 - 10 years. Absolutly nothing. Not one good thing worth noteing exsists. I can't think of a single thing that Micrsoft has done that has benifited consumers. Now they need to protect their monopoly with DRM. I think we should rent billboard and put on them what Microsoft is doing, it's the only way people will find out before it's too late.
    • if lets say Gore was elected over Bush... Sure the Democrats may not be much better... that mentality that voting for Green is a vote wasted has got to stop.

      Am I the only one who sees the non-sequitur in this post?
  • Dear Bill Gates,

    Please find enclosed $200 million dollars worth of vouchers redeemed on hardware purchases from Apple Computer. Please contact our Accounts Receivable department for accounts to wire the money to.

    Thank you very much for the business.

    Sincerely,
    Steve Jobs

  • I have an idea... (Score:4, Funny)

    by khenson ( 706671 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @09:09PM (#7334765)
    Maybe we can use the vouchers to pay our $699.00 SCO licensing fee...

  • MSFreePC.com (Score:4, Informative)

    by vonsneerderhooten ( 254776 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @09:11PM (#7334785)
    Anyone ever heard of this site? It's run by the same people that make Lindows, and it's been around for a while. They make it nice and easy to (1)determine if you're eligable to recieve any vouchers, (2)redeem said vouchers. Also, it's possible to get an entire pc- probably one of those $199 lindows pc's, but hey it's free. Are you gonna complain?

    -D
  • Linux Training providers should get on this fast and start working to help train organizations on non-MSFT products.
  • Couldn't we start up a company that could make a very friendly linux distro based on lets say debian? 200 million would be a great starting point!
  • you interpret "class action" as "class KAction" and attempt to derive from it and put it on a toolbar.

    That's it, I'm going to bed.

  • I did not RTFA but... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dwbryson ( 104783 ) <mutex@cryptoback ... org minus distro> on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @09:34PM (#7334892) Journal
    If this is anything like the california 'settlement' it's a fucking sham. The state of california filed the lawsuit on 'behaf of its constituents'... and here is what happened.

    The lawsuit result was for a couple billion dollars that microsoft had to 'give back' to its customers in california. So, much like the vouchers system in this one.. if you sent microsoft your license keys, they would give you a 'voucher' certificate. You could then purchase other hardware/software and mail in the receipt+voucher to get cash. Now here is where the scam is....

    All the money that isn't redeemed goes to seperate places. 2/3 of it goes to the state of california to 'help fund schools' and the last 1/3 goes back to microsoft. Now we all know if they get money from microsoft that can only be used for schools that means they will offset funds for schools later...
    So this is essentially payola for the state of california, fucking swine.

    who is going to go through the effort to get back, oh $50 on their microsoft licenses so that they can just purchase more equipment. Not joe blow.

    Compare this to the lawsuit filed by apple's customers about the G3's not being supported by macosX. The settlement says 'send in your copy of OSX and we will give you $129' ... that's $129 of COLD HARD CASH

    goverment for the people indeed.

  • Let's start the next suit! (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    We need to start the next class-action suit and this one is almost guaranteed to bankrupt even Microsoft!

    Every day I examine the logs on my firewall (linux, of course, do you think I'm nuts enough to trust any MS box naked on the net?) and find hundereds of Slammer, Blaster, etc, etc,etc probes looking for vulnerable Windows boxes. I am sure that most of these are compromised Windows boxes looking for more vulnerable Windows machines to infect. The rest are script kiddies looking to start a new round of Wi
  • Those who get a voucher from any of these deals should get together and donate all of their vouchers to an open source project. If you must, purchase a "license" to use that software. Put that money where it can be directly used against the Microsoft monopoly. Imagine Microsoft having to write 200 million dollars in checks to Redhat, MySQL, or Gnome. Hah! Oh, the irony.
    • Is the FSF (or whoever) able to set up such a mechanism? If I could collect a voucher, then donate the funds directly to the FSF, I'd do it straight away. I mean, the amounts on each voucher are probably small enough that they're not worth much to anyone individually, but a large collection of vouchers would be worthwhile.

      I'd prefer my donated funds didn't go directly to a project or FOSS company (sorry guys!), but to a group charged with ensuring FOSS' continued survival and/or prosperity.

      If there's a
    • But MS had "fine print" that didn't allow a third party to file, or some silly thing about not being able to do it electronically...making any kind of mass-retialiation pointless...but at least someone tried!
  • so where do i trade in my unopen copies of windows millenium for some wireless mice? no joke, heh.

  • Didn't work in CA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dozer ( 30790 ) on Tuesday October 28, 2003 @10:59PM (#7335298)
    Funny -- just today I threw out the application for my voucher from the CA class action lawsuit.

    In 1998, I bought a ThinkPad with Win98 installed. Apparently, this makes me eligible for $16 of Microsoft vouchers redeemable at major chains. I just needed to fill out a big honkin' form ripe for targeted marketing / mailing lists / etc. Why would they need anything more than my name and address??

    The small print? By submitting the voucher I agree that Microsoft has been totally cleared of any wrongdoing and I will never pursue any other claim related to this against Microsoft in the future. For $16. Why bother?

    I should have been a lawyer -- these are the only guys getting any money out of this settlement.
    • I will never pursue any other claim related to this against Microsoft in the future.

      Forever? Damn, that's like selling one's soul. If enough people fall for these vouchers, no one will be left to form a class leaving Microsoft unchallenged by class-action lawsuits for a good generation of humans.

  • I wish I was getting one of those vouchers - it'd give me so much pleasure to buy the latest SuSE distro, paid for by Bill Gates.

  • "vouchers used for software need not be used to purchase Microsoft products."

    (Cluching chest) "Elizabeth, this is the big one!!"
  • $200,000,000 is a rounding error in their books. This is not a penalty.

  • Is there a site that lists all of the class actions against Microsoft, and the states that filed them? I want to make sure to take advantage of this when my state files.

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