How the DOJ/MS Settlement was Reached 274
Drek was among the many who wrote in to tell us about the following: "Wired is running an article about how the MS/DoJ settlement was reached. More importantly, the DoJ has set up an email address where citizens can send comments about the case: microsoft.atr@usdoj.gov. This might be a good way for Slashdotters to do their civic duty."The address has been around for a bit, but still, a renewed call for comment.
What is my civic duty? (Score:1, Interesting)
if you wanna know what i think, an agreement is great. they did some lame things, but they have some excellent software and hardware, and i have no major anti-microsoft sentiments.
if you don't, then at least dig this: when the people that tell the news start telling you what your civic duty is, you gotta look 2x
Only US citizens can write to DoJ? (Score:2, Interesting)
But you are saying here:
I wonder exactly who is entitled to write an email to the US-DoJ. A lot of non-US citizen slashdoters would be willing to write I guess ...
-- Don Inodoro
The law (Score:2, Interesting)
I think when analysing the law, the primary objective of the law should be to implement justice.
How can we begin to understand the law when it fails so consistently on its primary objective in regard to tech matters.
The law will probably always be unjust to techies ad its based on precedents going back hundreds of years, a few people will always have to get persecuted before the lawmakers will consider changing a now irrelevent law.
Why should we try and understand the law when it ignores us and is clueless to make informed descisions.
To obey a bad law is worse than breaking it.
The first thing we need to learn about the law is how to evade it, its the only way to get justice... ironic isnt it.
I've said it before... (Score:3, Interesting)
Dave
Re:No one will care what we have to say (Score:2, Interesting)
Read the Settlement. (Score:3, Interesting)
I read the settlement [usdoj.gov]. It is great for Microsoft, and almost meaningless for everyone else.
The provisions don't begin until many people have been pushed into using Windows XP (eXtra Pain), after which they will be trapped in ways that are not part of the case. Here is a quote:
"Starting at the earlier of the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows XP or 12 months after the submission of this Final Judgment to the Court..."
Why not starting now?
Microsoft must disclose APIs, but may charge royalties. This prevents competition from Linux.
There is nothing which prevents Microsoft from using secret Microsoft Office file formats in an anti-competitive way.
The settlement provisions apparently do not apply if Microsoft claims that its anti-competitive software practices provide security.
The provisions provide Microsoft significant benefits.
Re:Consumers just don't matter (Score:3, Interesting)
Do a little poking around. The concept, and the merrits of this idea, have been covered and debated rather well on Slashdot and a number of other forumns. Without going in to said merrits, I'll outline the basic concept as I understand it.
The basic idea revolves around Microsoft's using a monopoly in one area to enforce a monopoly in another area (and back). Product development is done with marketing and monopoly enforcement in mind as much as functionality. Spliting these divisions would remove the incentive to enforce another division's monopoly (or provide undue advantages to another division). The divisions would then be forced to compete with other products on a more even playing field.
Again - there's a lot more detail and a some considerable debate on the merrits of these concepts. Dig around. Its easy to find and repeated numerous times via numerous sources.
The market. Would you pay for IE after X years of getting it for free? Would you pay for it rather than use other free products? And if you had to pay for IE, would you then consider other products that also require payment (such as Opera)? Oddly enough - that's the workings of a free market.
Re:Consumers just don't matter (Score:3, Interesting)
Ideally they should be broken into a dozen or more companies.
DOJ decision was great (Score:2, Interesting)
You have to admit that this settlement is a big shot in the arm for all the people worldwide who consider the USA to be a feeble, corrupt, greed-based police state that mouths the words "Liberty, Freedom, Justice" as though they still had some meaning somewhere in the world.
Next time the USA critisizes some other countries political or humanitarian policies, all they have to say is "Bill Gates and George Bush! Don't tell us about corruption and justice!"
Re:actually... (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft insisted that the NT 3.51 license didn't allow use of a webserver, but it was vague enough that it probably couldn't have been enforced, but they made certain that it could be in NT 4.0. Netscape wasn't the only one that was bitten by this license change -- O'Reilly's Website server also fell victim to it. Today, the only places Netscape/iPlanet's webservers still exist are on Novell (it's bundled with certain versions of Netware) and UNIX servers.