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Microsoft Class Action Suit Outcome: Indifference 188

Posted by timothy from the pick-your-vested-interest dept.
Ec|ipse writes points out that only about 7 percent of eligible Californians have decided to take Microsoft up on their settlement claims resulting from a class action suit in that state, writing "Microsoft contends that it's because the software giant is so popular with consumers." Eclipse excerpts from the press release on Yahoo! (from Settlement Recovery Center, a company that "helps businesses participate in class action settlements"): "With only two weeks remaining until the January 8 deadline, fewer than one million claims have been filed, out of some fourteen million eligible, for a share of the $1.1 billion fund arising out of the Microsoft class action settlement in California."
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Microsoft Class Action Suit Outcome: Indifference More

Microsoft Class Action Suit Outcome: Indifference

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  • More Money for the ones that Do File? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The Raven ( 30575 ) * on Sunday December 26, 2004 @03:51PM (#11186048) Homepage
    Does this mean the people who do bother to file get more money? Looks like they'll be getting about 1200 each at this point.
    • That's not really fair, is it? I mean, Microsoft earned all that money, and if people aren't even willing to go get it from them, then it means people think Microsoft deserves it, doesn't it?

      Kidding. Perhaps they could put all the extra into a "Nuclear missiles pointed at Redmond" fund. That way, if they do anything worse, BOOM! No more Redmond.
      • I think this basically means the simple fact. Most people don't have a problem with Microsoft, and are perfectly happy with their products. And while people go after attacking Microsoft and try to get them to cripple products for their own wants. All they are doing is hurting all those who like what MS gives them.

        You (not you specifically, but if it applies to you, then yes you) may not want WMP or IE integrated, or don't like this and that about a MS product, but lots of people do like it, so suites agai

        • I think this basically means the simple fact. Most people don't have a problem with Microsoft, and are perfectly happy with their products.

          Do you work for MS? That is a stupid assumption that they are making.

          1. How many people actually _heard_ about the rebate?
          2. How many people will bother with the rebate?
          3. MS is not giving people CASH.
          4. People can only get MS software with this rebate

          This whole "settlement" is a scam that is only going to HELP MS, it is not going to be a punishment. It will cost MS very

          • All class actions suits are a scam and the MS settlement is quite typical. It's always about lawyers making a lot of money, not about consumer's rights. Slashdotters should not have assumed that this suite was meaningful or that it would have any substantial negative impact on MS.
        • As another poster said there are plenty of forms to fill out, for a measly 20-60 USD. GIVE ME A BREAK! I know I would not and it is not because I am happy with MS.

          Frankly what the settlement should do is give the left over money to some charities.
    • From TFA:
      According to the settlement, two-thirds of the unclaimed proceeds will go to public schools around the state in the form of Microsoft software and vouchers.

      So no, the claim filers will not get the excess.

      • Microsoft has be fighting tooth and nail for years to finish off apple in the Educational market. This is brilliant. They take their fine, pay it in software whose value has been bloated by the monopoly ($100 dollars for a wordprocessor, wtf?), and get thosands (millions?) of schools teaching the next gen of lusers to use Microsoft, and only Microsoft (yeah, they can apply all those 'computer skills' to a Mac, but most are too lazy, Believe it or not). It's amazing how Microsoft has turned every aspect of t
        • which is exactly why apple was screaming bloody murder when they proposed this as the remedy for their anti-trust violations.

          absolutely ridiculous that they can use this situation to FURTHER their monopoly - and in one area that is already bad enough.

          sickened indeed

    • Nobody is getting ANY money! Hence nobody filed. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheLittleJetson ( 669035 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @06:24PM (#11186763)
      From the site: People and businesses that are covered by the settlement can get vouchers that may be redeemed for cash after buying eligible computer products.

      Yeah, that's right. You can get up to $100 in REBATES. You will not end up with a net gain of $100, you will just get $100 off some crap that you probably wouldn't have bought had you not been given some stupid voucher and felt the need to use it.

      Kudos to Microsoft for fooling the courts into such a meaningless penalty.
    • I hope so. I didn't file because I have destroyed all evidence that I've purchased any of their software. (Well...except for a copy of MSWind95 that I continue to use...disconnected from the internet, and even from the LAN.)

      It certainly isn't because I'm happy with MS, though it doesn't surprise me that they would have the gall to claim so. Actually, first I found them totally useless at supplying help, and then I found their revised EULA to be something I could not agree to.
  • I think this is probably the case not only because Microsoft is "popular" (read: has 90+% of the OS market), but also because Microsoft software (along with the bugs, security issues, and spyware/adware problems that come with it) is accepted by society because people aren't aware of the alternatives that are out there (Mac and Linux) and MS has enough money and political clout to keep these alternatives at bay.
    • If you are a linux or mac fanboy turn away now.... People can't be aware of the alternatives that do not exist. First off I think it's blindly ignorant to say people aren't aware of Macs. Sure macs can do some things very well, but for most people (not slashdot people) Macs aren't as useful/convienent to them. Linux is even more useless to the average user at its current state (though it has been getting much friendlier to install and wider driver support). Yea, Microsoft's crap may sometimes be buggy and h

      • Yea, Microsoft's crap may sometimes be buggy and have security issues but at the same time I'll chalk that up to user error. Turn on your firewall, turn on autoupdate, get a virusscanner, stop downloading stupid shit, etc.

        So you mean the average user has to do *all of this* to get Microsoft software running fine? God, and I though configuring sendmail was tough!

        • Firewall is automatically on in SP2.

          Autoupdate is automatically on in SP2.

          You are reminded to install a virus scanner automatically in SP2.

          You are prompted every time you download stupid shit, that downloading said shit is dangerous. ... but yes you are right about one thing... configuring sendmail is tough.
    • I think this is probably the case not only because Microsoft is "popular" (read: has 90+% of the OS market), but also because Microsoft software..is accepted by society because people aren't aware of the alternatives that are out there (Mac and Linux)

      A product with greater than 90% market share can reasonably be considered popular, without the quotes, and if, after being trumpted from the rooftops for twenty years, people still aren't aware of the Mac, what hope is there for Linux?

  • Stupid conclusion... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ReverendRyan ( 582497 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @03:57PM (#11186085) Homepage
    "Microsoft contends that it's because the software giant is so popular with consumers."
    Maybe it's because most of the people who understand what the "Microsoft Tax" is haven't paid it in years, thus leaving only the people who think MS Word is Windows is IE not joining the lawsuit...

  • Where's the publicity? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by IO ERROR ( 128968 ) * <errorNO@SPAMioerror.us> on Sunday December 26, 2004 @03:58PM (#11186091) Homepage Journal
    Could it be that so "few" people have filed a claim because of the lack of publicity surrounding the case? I don't exactly see front-page articles in the Los Angeles Times saying to go pick up your money.
    • I didn't participate in this because it isn't worth the pain the ass for $10-15.

      ~S

    • Not publicity, paranoia (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In our small company's case, it just did not make economic sense to file this.
      MS Windows OS licenses: 5 x $16 rebate = $80
      MS Office Suite licenses: 1 x $29 rebate = $29
      BSA raid on our company: 1 x -$10,000 fine = -$10,000
      Total: -$9,891

      I'm guessing there are a lot of other people and companies that this did not make economic sense for either.

    • A while back I received some mail about it. At this point I forget if it was paper junk mail or email spam, I think paper, but if you had registered contact information with Microsoft when you bought your software during the appropriate years, I think they probably had to use that. The mail wasn't done very well in terms of identifying who really sent it, but it did look like it probably came from some internet-clueless law firm that probably really was managing that part of the class action lawsuit, as o

  • Why botther (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheOldFart ( 578597 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:00PM (#11186098)
    What percentage of those eligible are aware of the suit? Of those, how many bother to file it? The claimed 7% seems pretty high as it is. Why bother to file this (spending the time to look for the required paper work, giving away information you may not want to share) only to get a few bucks? It's not worth it. Class action law suits are never worth anything unless you are the attorneys filing it. Those are the only ones making any money out of all this (and absurd amounts at that).

    • Re:Why botther (Score:2, Insightful)

      by goon america ( 536413 )
      The damages are considered punitive. They are intended to primarily to punish Microsoft, not to provide a refund to consumers. That being the case, it doesn't really matter all that much to whom the money goes, they could set it on fire for that matter.

      Whether or not this makes sense on all levels is an open question, but this what the legal reasoning is.

  • Cat got your tongue? (Score:5, Funny)

    by gulfan ( 524955 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:01PM (#11186101)
    Did it ever occur to them that every time we try signing up for the class action lawsuit, when we hit submit iexplorer.exe gives us a general protection fault? That seven percent must be the Mozilla [mozilla.org] users.

    • It's worse than that, I'm afraid. (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Not only does it crash some versions of explorer, but all the version of mozilla, firefox, konqueror, elinks, and lynx that I've tried fail to see the pdf link at all.

      Nothing like an organization created to punish microsoft for monopolistic business practices that forces claimants to use a recent version of microsoft software to download their claim forms.

      On a side note - here's an example of super nifty web design at its absolute worst. Instead of just making a plain old html page with links to a plain

  • Suprise? (Score:5, Informative)

    by confusion ( 14388 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:02PM (#11186105) Homepage
    Should this really be a suprise?
    Why do you think stores offer "mail-in rebates"? Because NO ONE SENDS THEM IN. Or at least a substantially small number as to still be wildly profitable.
    People like to think they're getting a good deal, but when it comes time to send in the paperwork, it doesn't happen.

    Jerry
    http://www.syslog.org/ [syslog.org]

    • Re:Suprise? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Scrameustache ( 459504 )
      "mail-in rebates"? Because NO ONE SENDS THEM IN.

      I don't send them in.
      Fill it out, mail it, wait for it...
      All that for 5 bucks off? And now they have legal grounds to bury you in spam... no thanks.
    • Not only that, but when the label says to please allow for 6-8 weeks for processing, there is no instant gratification. People don't want to bother with them because most of us can't plan ahead ten minutes into the future.
    • And because companies use deceptive practices. No small text saying that you can only have one from the same address, but they refuse to grant the rebate if you buy more than one from the same location. Some companies ignore them entirely. Some only send rebates if you pester them about it.

      Speaking from experience, I was responsible for rebates for my company (yay, much more important than software engineering :p), I filled out about 50 last year, and learned to keep very detailed records on rebates. Also,

  • Why people don't file (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bruce Perens ( 3872 ) <bruce@perens.com> on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:02PM (#11186107) Homepage Journal
    Many of us have filed claim forms for class-action suits before. We get somewhere between $7 and $15 back. For most of us, it's simply not worth the time.

    Not that I'm a big consumer of Microsoft software in any case :-)

    Bruce

    • Reminds me of Nintendo (Score:5, Informative)

      by beldraen ( 94534 ) <chad...montplaisir@@@gmail...com> on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:12PM (#11186139)
      My state of Missouri decided to "get tough" with Nintendo's price fixing back in the late 1980's, I belive. I signed in for the class action suit and everything. Being young, I had the nievity to believe that this would change things. The state "won," and I got a certificate for $10 off my next game purchase. Wow, Missouri punished Nintendo with a game sale and state-wide advertisments.

      The only think that Microsoft didn't manage to do in this case was tie the deal to new purchases; otherwise, it's Microsoft laughing, not rumbles from Mt. St. Helens over there.
      • According to my reading of the settlement you DO HAVE to buy hardware and the money comes to you as a "rebate" for that hardware after you have submitted a proof-of-purchase.

        Wow, that's absurd.

        Stewing
    • I looked into filing... there is no reason to do so. I have to spend more money to get any return.

      That is not a settlement, it is a marketing strategy.
  • Maybe the source of funds makes the proposition seem a little unsavoury.....
    Or it could be that some people view accepting the settlement money implies that they endorse that settled state...rather than refusing the settlement, and pushing the court action.
  • To fill out all the paperwork and just get a measly check. A better idea (except for those who upgraded to another OS) would be to cut prices by the settlement amount to californian consumers. But then again, there would be some problems coordinating how much of a discount to take.

    Even easier... just give it all to charties.
  • $1.1B / 1M people = $1,100 each. Now granted this is california money (CA = very high cost of living in LA, SF, Si Valley, etc), but still $1,000 could buy a new Athlon64 system.
    • Your math is silly.

      You forgot about the lawyers!

      So it works out to about 10-14 bucks each.

    • Voucher Math (Score:3, Insightful)

      by wasted ( 94866 )
      Unfortunately, it is all in the form of vouchers. (I can't take credit for this, it was pointed out by someone else [slashdot.org], earlier.) So, for a single Windows/Office install, someone would get vouchers good toward a minor portion of the next purchase of Microsoft Products.

      What is interesting is the effect of the vouchers on the profitability of Microsoft. Two cases are possible when someone is going to use a voucher -

      Case 1: Someone uses the voucher to purchase software that they originally would not have pu

  • Money? depends on volume (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    according the settlement website [microsoftc...lement.com] vouchers will be sent to the consumers who file claims. According to their FAQ, [microsoftc...lement.com] though, the amount of money you recieve depends on the Microsoft product you bought. Here is a list of the products and the amount you would recieve: $16 for each Microsoft Windows or MS-DOS license claimed; $29 for each Microsoft Office license claimed; $5 for each Microsoft Word, Home Essentials or Works Suite license claimed; and $26 for each Microsoft Excel license claimed. If you got t
  • Once again we see that lawyers are the only ones to benefit from a class action lawsuit. The answer is to eliminate class-action lawsuits and institute jail time for corporate executives. Yes, jail time. The price a corporation pays for the privilege of being given the rights of a human being should be jail time for being on the losing end of a civil action. Then, take their yearly salary, double it, and fine them personally. All officers of the corporation. Forbid the corporation from paying the offi

  • plum pudding. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by reynhout ( 89071 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:33PM (#11186215)
    Doesn't it seem like "exploiting customers by fraudulent means" should carry a heavier sentence than this?

    Microsoft has smart lawyers, and California's lawyers apparently rolled over and played dead, after making a good show of pursuing the case after most others had dropped it.

    But let's look at this...Microsoft's lawyers negotiated a settlement whereby:

    1. claimants have to produce and file an old receipt for purchase of software. (dropoff percentage upward of 75%, for sure)

    2. claimants receive a VOUCHER FOR FUTURE PURCHASES of computer stuff. (dropoff percentage at least 50%)

    3. claimants have to send all that paperwork to a claim management company to get their real money (dropoff percentage at least 30% -- would be much higher, but any customer who is this far along can be presumed to be motivated...)

    and lastly, the icing on the cake:

    4. two-thirds of unclaimed funds are donated, by Microsoft, to California schools in the form of computer hardware and software. The software, of course, has zero incremental cost to Microsoft except in lost sales to CA schools, but even more importantly...there is no donation better spent than a donation to kids. Get them early, get them for life.

    What ever happened to: "You screwed the plaintiffs over. Make full restitution now or go to jail."?

    • "4. two-thirds of unclaimed funds are donated, by Microsoft, to California schools in the form of computer hardware and software."

      And Microsoft get a tax deduction for this donation to charity.

  • Delusions? (Score:2, Flamebait)

    by eMartin ( 210973 )
    I'm really starting ot wonder if Microsoft's comments about how great an popular their software is are actually lies to the public, or if they are just trying to convince themselves.

    It's like some nerd saying "I don't get a lot of dates, but that's just because so few girls out there deserve me. I just need to find one that does."

  • Not indifference (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Todd Knarr ( 15451 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:34PM (#11186220) Homepage

    I qualify under the settlement, but it wasn't satisfaction with Microsoft or simple indifference that made me not file for it. It's the settlement itself. What do I get from it? A paltry $5 off Word, for example, or $30 off the complete Office suite. That isn't even enough to offset the sales tax on those products. And I have to buy products from the same company being punished. They've abused their monopoly position, not to mention been the root cause of most of the virus headaches I have to deal with, and I should add to their profits? Why? If the settlement had involved MS having to give me a discount on competitor's products, I might've gone for it.

  • Did it ever occur to anyone that what this settlement offers is vouchers to purchase more M$ software.

    Given that, did it ever occur to anyone that people who don't like M$ might not want more M$ software?

    Given that, did it ever occur to anyone that a relatively few number of people taking advantage of a chance to get free M$ software might indicate a low demand for more M$ software.

    Saying the response rate of this settlement is due to "popularity of M$ with consumers" is horribly bastardized logic.

    • Did it ever occur to anyone that what this settlement offers is vouchers to purchase more M$ software.

      Well, it might occur to you that the vouchers can only be redeemed for M$ software, but you would be wrong. From the Q&A:

      Qualifying software includes any non-custom software offered by any software vendor for use on a desktop, laptop or tablet computer.

      The qualifying computer hardware or software does not have to be a Microsoft product.

  • Arizona Settlement (Score:2, Informative)

    by finker ( 735219 )
    I live in Arizona, and one day in the mail I got a letter with various information about a class action law suit against Microsoft. I don't know how this law place got my address, nor how they managed to come up with a fake business name for me (EnvisionNET?), but the letter was there. Included were various forms to make a claim, and I was thinking about doing it, then I came across the money part. I can't find my claim forms right now, but I took this off of the website [microsoftp...lement.com]:

    "A voucher for $9.00 for each li

  • The Microsoft Gap (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JessLeah ( 625838 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @04:47PM (#11186283)
    This just shows something most geeks are too naive to realize: There exists a huge gap between how geeks see MS and how Everyone Else(TM) sees MS. Call it the "Microsoft Gap".

    Had the 14 million people eligible to take a small slice of Microsoft's money all been geeks, I'd say at least 10 million would have claimed the money-- not because they needed it, but simply to hurt, and spite, MS. It would have been a little "death of a thousand cuts" for MS. Instead, we got a lackluster 1 million claiming their slice of the pie. Actually, it's a miracle that even that many people signed on.

    Most geeks are too naive to realize just how popular Microsoft really is among the general populace.

    To most geeks, Bill Gates is a wily scuzzbag who happened to be in the right place at the right time, applied his incredible business acumen, and now is in a position where his company can milk the general populace for a significant percentage of the cost of a new computer every single time they buy one. He's a robber baron who takes other companies'/peoples' good ideas, bastardizes them, and makes money on them, leaving the original creators to go bankrupt (at worst) or carve out tiny niche markets (at best). Or he just buys them out.

    However, to non-geeks (reminder: this covers 99+% of the US population), Bill Gates is a hero and a role model. He is someone that they aspire to be like, due to his incredible wealth and business acumen. The general Party Line among the unwashed masses seems to be "Well, Windows is what everyone runs, so it must be the best." This is rather akin to "every keyboard uses QWERTY, so QWERTY must be better than all other layouts" (e.g. Dvorak). It's also akin to "VHS beat out Beta, so VHS must be better in all ways." Nevertheless, this is how most people in the US feel on the matter.

    Until geeks understand how non-geeks think, no progress will be made in educating the public.

    • Re:The Microsoft Gap (Score:5, Funny)

      by BHearsum ( 325814 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @05:03PM (#11186364) Homepage
      Mod parent up, he likes DVORAK

    • Re:The Microsoft Gap (Score:5, Insightful)

      by writermike ( 57327 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @05:09PM (#11186392)
      However, to non-geeks (reminder: this covers 99+% of the US population), Bill Gates is a hero and a role model.

      Oh, I disagree completely. I talk to enough "non-geeks," as you call them, to know that the general consensus is that Windows is a necessary evil and that Bill Gates _has_ manipulated the system to his advantage and his competitors (and sometimes customers) disadvantage. To be sure, they don't react angrily to this, one fist in the air and the other handing $1500 to a sales person at the Apple store. They see Gates and Microsoft mainly as unfortunate but typical of any large company. They feel about as empowered to do anything as they do about complaining about the high costs of anything.
    • Your assuming geeks would sign up to claim the money. First off, the amount is very small.. second, atleast with the settlement in AZ, by filing the paperwork, it prohibits you from being apart of any other lawsuit against MS for the same activities. Given the broad nature of some of these settlements, I didn't feel the pittance was worth waiving my rights to be involved in future activity against MS (read: something that might make a difference..)

      In anycase, these settlements are bogus. Hopefully with the
    • I'd say at least 10 million would have claimed the money-- not because they needed it, but simply to hurt, and spite, MS. It would have been a little "death of a thousand cuts" for MS.

      No, that's not how it works. The total amount is allocated in advance, and the fixed amount of money is divided amongst the people that signed up. Microsoft has to pay the same amount regardless of how many people signed up in this phase of the suit.

      Damages in class action suits are usually not intended to provide restitut
    • I understand your point, but I think you're illustrating the Unix cultural conceit that geeks are all pro-Unix and anti-MS. There are significant threads of geekdom (if that's a word) that owe nothing to Unix (or MS for that matter).

  • Does it really make a difference any more? (Score:3)

    by HockeyPuck ( 141947 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @05:01PM (#11186353)
    My beef is that monetary penalties against MSFT just aren't worth it. It's like fining you or me 10cents every time we speed. Big Deal.

    Even forcing MSFT to make a version of windows without media player is a joke. Many people are used to using media player, and so many companies have created products counting on the fact that a user will have media player. Big Deal.

    What are users going to get out of this? $10 off their next purchase of MSFT software. So now MSFT makes a slightly smaller margin on their software for .00001% of the population that happens to have this coupon. The customer is *still* giving MSFT money out of their pocket.

    The gov't needs to start thinking outside the box, monetary, software reconfigs aren't going to fix it. They need to deal with MSFT like they did with the coal and railroad barons of the early 1900s and with AT&T. The gov't is always trying to put the "djini back into the bottle." We all know its easier to do wrong and beg for foregiveness than it is to ask for permission....

    • The geeks couldn't even agree on how to punish Microsoft in a way to break up their monopoly so how do you expect the anyone else to come up with a good plan? Most geeks I know thought I was wrong for proposing that the home os be given to one company and the business one to another. Give word and excel to two different companies. Same with their games. The result would have been 5 new companies all competing with each other but even the geeks objected to that. Too bad the judge from the Standard oil d
  • I got one of those settlement forms. There were something like 3 pages of form for a ten dollar voucher. If I'm remembering it right you had to get the serial numbers. Screw that.

    I had a house with bad siding. That class action settlement had to have an inspection and lots of other stupid crap. Had to reschedule the inspection three times. The siding didn't look that bad and finally all the process just wore me down. Who has infinite time to pursue a petty settlement?

    Class action suits are a ripo

  • Just out of curiosity, I tried to fill out the claim form (wow, $5 off Excel. The gov't really stuck it to them... :p) and couldn't get it to give me the form. Filled out my name, clicked "Create Form"... clicked "Get Form"... took me back to where I had to fill out my name.

    Perhaps the web site is not Mozilla compatible. Which is just ironic on a number of levels.

    • My primary browser is firefox. It did not generate a form for me to download and fill out.

      So I tried IE (latest patched version for Windows/2000 Professional). It did not generate a form for me to fill out.

      Now I suppose I could change my system to use IE as the default browser, turn off Earthlink popup blocking, and try again. Then reset everything afterwards.

      I don't think so. There are actually three pieces of Microsoft software that I wouldn't mind owning, just to keep in practice (I use non

  • You also release them from further lawsuits if you file. And as much as Microsoft owes me big time for that copy of Windows ME I bought in 2000, the form and hoops you have to go through are way over the top. (The RIAA one let you do everything online).
  • I'm in California. I can't be bothered to go figure out what I'm owed. By the time I get through the hassle of doing hundreds of dollars worth of labour (my time is worth hundreds/hour), I'll end up with, as the site says, a voucher for cash back after I buy certain eligible computer products.

    With all due respect, who gives a flying f--k?

    I didn't run down to the library to check out one of 1,000 copies of ABBA's first album after the RIAA got slapped down. I'm not going to bother with this either.

    Microso

  • Odd (Score:3, Insightful)

    by j_w_d ( 114171 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @05:22PM (#11186459)
    The notice I recieved didn't offer cash. It seemed to be offering MS software at reduced prices:

    "... People and businesses that are covered by the settlement can get vouchers that may be redeemed for cash after buying eligible computer products. ..." - empahsis added.

    You'ld think that MS would be able to look at it's registered users database and simply know who is elegible. After all, some of us who build our own systems have been paying the old MS tax for years, and dutifully registered everything in the faint hope that MS support just might be able to help some time.

    I would just as soon the state collected the settlement and reduced taxes a little.

    • If you read further, you'll see that they explictly bold the line which says it does NOT have to be an Microsoft product. Basically, it's for hardware and software for a consumer desktop or laptop of any operating system.

      So assuming they grant my several hundred dollars worth, I think I'm inclined to get myself a G5......

  • Bad Karma (Score:4, Interesting)

    by lousyd ( 459028 ) on Sunday December 26, 2004 @05:44PM (#11186560)
    A Story:

    At my local (California) community college, one Monday in mid-December, four young men stood outside the cafeteria. They were trying to get people to sign a petition "to help breast cancer research". They were being a little abrasive; people who ignored them were assailed with loud comments like, "Oh, I guess you don't care about breast cancer."

    I walked up to them and asked what their petition was about. The "leader" explained that only 1% of people had claimed their refunds from Microsoft's antitrust settlement. He said that he and his companions were working for the antitrust lawyers, who would be paid on the basis of how many people actually collected this settlement money. If I signed certain paperwork, the $100 I was "entitled" to would go to breast cancer research, and I would get a tax deductible donation. "So have you bought any Microsoft products in the past?" he asked.

    "No."

    "Does your computer have any Microsoft stuff on it?"

    "No," I replied. "I use Linux."

    "Ohh, Lanux," he replied knowingly. He tried again: "Have you even used anything from Microsoft?" He reminded me I didn't need documentation.

    At that moment, a middle-aged woman walked briskly up to the table. "I do NOT appreciate what you said to my daughter!" she said.

    "What?"

    "She couldn't sign your petition--because she's only 16. And you said, 'Bad karma, I hope you get breast cancer'!"

    I left the table and walked over to a young woman standing a few yards away. "Did they actually say that?!" I asked.

    "Yes," she said, tears in her eyes. "I can't sign that, because I'm not old enough. And they said, 'Bad karma, I hope you get breast cancer.'"

    "That's terrible," I said. Her mom came back to us, snapped, "Let's go," and they did.

    I left for class. As I did, I heard a young-ish female student trying to score points with the petitioning males: in a catty, loud voice, she remarked, "Gosh, some people are soooo easily offended."

  • I honestly can't claim I've been ripped off by MS. I've never paid a MS tax since I build all my own boxes. I do run MS OSes (gotta have my games) but I think the last time I paid retail for it was when MS-DOS 6.22 came out. Most everything else has been gray market, which to an extent means I've benefitted from someone else having paid the MS tax. And that's even if the settlement was worthwhile, and I'm not certain it is.
    • this is the "Lisa Simpson is an ignorant bitch and wouldn't take money of Burns cos it came from mistreating animals" fallacy. the right thing is to take the money off the evil person because they'll use it to do more evil. but instead she was a selfish bitch and considered her own conscience far more important than the well-being of everyone else.
      • Sorry, but exitus non acta probat. Not fallacious at all, just moral. Or as moral as one can get after buying gray-market software in the first place. That's one method by which I don't mind harming MS's revenue stream, and incidentally benefiting those who have been harmed by their methods. I see no need to go further.

        I really think you ought to study metaphysics in some context other than The Simpsons.

        • just because I referenced the simpsons doesn't make my point less valid.

          plus, it doesn't have anything to do with "metaphysics".

          I think you ought to THINK about what the point is and not how the point is phrased.
          • just because I referenced the simpsons doesn't make my point less valid.

            Yes it does. You wanted to suggest a moral course of action, and your only recourse is to a silly cartoon? That bespeaks a certain lack of depth. It certainly doesn't support your point in any meaningful way.

            plus, it doesn't have anything to do with "metaphysics".

            Lisa Simpson would know better. Look it up [reference.com]

            I think you ought to THINK about what the point is and not how the point is phrased.

            I THINK you ought to read the rest of m

  • I wonder how many people would gladly donate their $4.83 share of the settlement towards delivering a real slapdown to Microsoft?

    I'd like to see the money go towards building a catapult designed to hurl week-old chicken guts into their main conference room.

  • So how does that percentage compare to other class action lawsuits? For all I know, that is a high percentage of members of the class.
  • The way to make class-action suits work is to make it something of a lottery. Rather than dividing the take so that each class member wins a $1.50 or some such, make it so that a number of them are randomly chosen to win $5,000, equal to the total award amount. That would actually help some people (as opposed to helping nobody) and given the popularity of state lotteries I suspect indifference would become a thing of the past.
  • I filed out a web form to get a printable claim form, and it just takes me to the page telling me that I can get a claim form!
  • I received several forms from the settlement and added a few extra licenses I have lying around to the mix. For a total of $150 in vouchers.

    This was last April. After mailing them in, I haven't heard a peep from them. I'm pretty much guessing I never will either.

  • My guess... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by rnturn ( 11092 ) on Monday December 27, 2004 @02:44AM (#11189614)

    ... is that most of the people who are even aware of this class action lawsuit are thinking ``Oh, great! Just what I need: a check for $50 or voucher from Microsoft for some more of their buggy software''. At that point they decide that the suit isn't worth the effort to track down the receipt for the PC/software and, from there on, their brain's ``waste of my time'' filter kicks in whenever it's mentioned.

    Now if it turned out that you'd get a full refund of the retail price of your MS software plus, oh, $100-$200 for every time your PC had to be rebuilt from scratch due to the swiss cheese nature of their OS/application security, then it starts becoming worthwhile to join in on the suit.

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