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  Judge extends Microsoft consent decree
Time: 15:47 EST/20:47 GMT | News Source: ComputerWorld | Posted By: Andre Da Costa

A U.S. district court judge said Wednesday she will extend portions of an antitrust decree governing Microsoft's actions for 18 months. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will extend portions of the decree until May 2011 at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and states that brought the 1998 antitrust complaint against Microsoft, she told lawyers for both sides.

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#1 By 15406 (99.240.76.72) at 4/22/2009 4:43:21 PM
I'm not sure why they bother. It's not like the decrees have changed MS's behaviour one iota. MS either delays or appeals until the rulings are moot or irrelevant, or pays the fine and continues doing what it was doing, or finds a loophole around the ruling.

#2 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/23/2009 10:34:28 AM
#1 They "bother" because deranged hatred of Microsoft is not just for you.

Wouldn't it have been nice if all the Microsoft haters had spent some of their energy asking the DOJ to keep an eye on Bernie Madoff or Chris Dodd or Barney Frank instead of Microsoft.

#3 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 4/23/2009 11:42:31 AM
#2: I don't understand this strange mindset of yours. You appear to advocate a position where MS should be allowed to do whatever it wants, and if anyone has a problem then they are labeled a 'hater'. In case you're not up on things, MS is under the DoJ eye because of a long history of egregious, illegal and anti-competitive behaviour. For more details, read the European Committee for Interoperable Systems report here:

http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf

And, please, spare us the "The EU is full of MS haters!!" lameness.

#4 By 8556 (173.27.241.22) at 4/23/2009 2:12:33 PM
This insures that the lawyers involved can continue to treat the parties involved with the "legal issues" as an annuity for several more years.

#5 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/23/2009 2:50:31 PM
#3 Microsoft main "crime" was to bundle a media player and web browser with an OS. If you aren't a hater, then that would seem to be no crime at all.

Consumer Choice is an interesting name for a document considering that Microsoft was forced to create a Windows N version without a media player ... and NOBODY chose to buy it.

In the real world adding features to a product is giving consumers choice.

You are a hater. The EU are haters.

By the way, which harmed consumers more ... a bundled media player/browser or the financial meltdown? The DOJ only has so many resources. Justify why that manpower and time was spent on Microsft and not on the crooks and crooked polticians who vaporized trillions in wealth?

I know I know ... you choose Microsoft. Because you are a hater.

This post was edited by NotParkerToo on Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 14:52.

#6 By 28801 (65.90.202.10) at 4/23/2009 2:59:46 PM
#3: from your link:

"Linux users are driven to pay the licensing fee despite the speculative nature of the IP claims."

Just curious Latch - what license fee have you ever paid to use Linux???


Also, the author(s) of this document clearly demonstrates a deep hatred of Microsoft

#7 By 15406 (99.240.76.72) at 4/23/2009 5:33:07 PM
#5: Try reading the report. While there are lots of crimes to choose from, I don't believe that there is a main crime. More of a pattern of crimes. And, despite my plea, I knew you would come back with your lame 'haters' nonsense.

#6: They meant companies like TomTom that use Linux in their products.

Deep hatred of Microsoft?? Now you sound like parkkker and that's not a good thing. It looks more like a list of instances of Microsoft being Microsoft. Or do you mean it in the same context as the police 'hating' criminals?

#8 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/23/2009 5:59:44 PM
#7 I read the first line: "On January 15, 2009, the European Commission issued a new Statement of Objections to Microsoft, outlining the Commission’s “preliminary view that Microsoft’s tying of its web browser Internet Explorer to its dominant operating system Windows infringes the EC Treaty rules on abuse of a dominant position (Article 82)” and “distorts competition on the merits between competing web browsers."

Thats the "main crime". Putting a web browser in an OS.

TomTom owns patents they bought from other companies.

You are a hater.

#9 By 28801 (65.90.202.10) at 4/23/2009 8:29:28 PM
#7: Dude - I read the document. And the more I read it, the more I realize my statement is true. It is clear to me the author was commissioned to trash Microsoft not to find the truth.

From Page 19: "And, in fact, after releasing Windows Server 2003 to lukewarm reviews"
The footnote points to an article that says nothing about lukewarm reviews. Instead it points out advantages to upgrading to Windows 2003 by mentioning features and makes recommendations to those thinking of upgrading.

Also on Page 19: "Microsoft failed to release a new server version of Windows until 2008."
This Footnote points to a blog that actually talks up Server 2008 features and again makes recommendations for upgrading (see quote below). There is no mention of the multiple service packs MS released on all OSes.

"On the other hand if you are planning a desktop upgrade from Windows 2000 Professional\Windows XP to Windows Vista, in the next 18-24 months, moving to Windows Server 2008 is ideal since it will be designed to run best with Windows Server 2008. The choices all revolve around your specific needs. There is no wrong decision."

It is clear to me that this was a contracted hit job.

#10 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/23/2009 11:29:04 PM
"ECIS’ members include large and smaller information and communications technology hardware and software providers Adobe Systems, Corel, IBM, Nokia, Opera, Oracle, RealNetworks, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems."

Haters all.

#11 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 4/24/2009 8:08:32 AM
#9: While there is a slant to the report (I would be jaded too if I had to listen to MS pay public lip-service to interoperability while doing all it can to prevent it), you can't argue the facts. parkkker knows this and so he continues to attack the messenger because he can't attack the message with any credence.

#10: Funny how MS isn't a member. I thought MS's middle name was interoperability? Could it all be a lie?

#12 By 28801 (65.90.202.10) at 4/24/2009 8:57:11 AM
#11: That is my only point. For me, any potential valid points appear tainted by the tone and superfluous nonsense. It's like listening to FOX news.

#13 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 4/24/2009 10:42:45 AM
#12: That's fine when it's a matter of opinion or interpretation, but if Fox News reports a car accident, I'm pretty sure there's really a car accident and they didn't just make it up to make a Democrat look bad. The committee is obviously very tired of seeing MS play their games and its reflected in the tone of the report, but the details are all factually correct. You can nitpick things like their assertion of how well received WS2K3 was, for example, but MS's egregious conduct is as plain as the nose on your face is (assuming you have a nose.)

#14 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/24/2009 12:46:58 PM
#11 "Funny how MS isn't a member".

Why would they join a hate-filled lobby group that only campaigns to punish microsoft?

#15 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 4/24/2009 3:49:29 PM
#14: I don't know how you go through life being so factually-challenged.

Why would they join a hate-filled lobby group that only campaigns to punish microsoft?

Really? Is that what they do? Considering they're a 20-year-old organization, it sure has taken them a long time to start their mandate, huh? To me, it appears that they push for interoperability and open standards, something Microsoft repeatedly claims it supports. So what's the problem then?

#16 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/24/2009 10:30:10 PM
Even wikipedia knows they are a Microsoft hating front group for Microsofts competitors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Committee_for_Interoperable_Systems

#17 By 12071 (121.45.54.21) at 4/24/2009 10:48:06 PM
#13 "but if Fox News reports a car accident"
You'd be right in most cases... but not when it comes to Fox news... it could very well have been an incident where a child accidentally tapped a car with a shopping trolley that will be translated into the Democrats hitting a new low of crashing into Republican vehicles in order to get back at them - or some other ludicrous idiocy. Then they'd get O'Reilly to just shout and abust the crap out of some poor dimwit that they found on the street that can't speak up for himself and paint him as being a leading Democrat. After all this is a network that has to TELL YOU that they're fair and balanced (tm)! That's their trademark slogan rather than actually being fair and balanced. This is a network that provides parkkker and co. with all their facts!

#18 By 15406 (99.240.76.72) at 4/25/2009 8:52:19 AM
#16: The two most salient points in that stub are:

"Some have hinted[citation needed] that ECIS corporate members are mainly Microsoft competitors"

Citation needed, indeed. "Some" have "hinted"... gotta love the weasel words inserted into the stub by MS fanboys. They need to flesh it out a bit for perspective: "Some at Microsoft have hinted to their pet bloggers that ECIS corporate members are mainly Microsoft competitors."

Secondly, "which does not of course invalidate their complaints against Microsoft dominance."

So ECIS has valid complaints against Microsoft chicanery. No surprise there.

#19 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/25/2009 2:52:11 PM
#18 When IBM, an ECIS memeber, open sources its mainframe and minicomputer operating systems, I might believe they aren't a member of ECIS just to try and get the EU to slow down Microsoft. And if Oracle open sources its database and gives it away for free, I might .... oh never mind. Never gonna happen.

#20 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/25/2009 2:53:13 PM
#17 Fox is a little too middle of the road for me. But way better than GE's stooges MSNBC.

#21 By 28801 (71.58.225.185) at 4/25/2009 3:25:30 PM
#17: Thanks for clearing up the confusion. I forget that Latch is in Canada and may not get the FOX comedy channel!

#20: Olberman for President

#22 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/25/2009 9:58:41 PM
#21 I was quite sure no one could come up with a worse choice for President than Uhhhbama.

You proved me wrong.

#23 By 23275 (24.196.4.141) at 4/26/2009 10:41:01 AM
I sure hope this world can learn to disagree. If not, the divisions between us will continue to deepen. Conservatives on one side, progressives on the other. The middle ground is becoming increasingly narrow.

Progressives cannot afford the world they want - not without taking from conservatives by very large percentages. At some point it tips past what is possible mathematically, which is long past what is acceptable, or practical. Those whom have achieved and built wealth will either be exhausted, or refuse to surrender any more of that which they have worked to build.

We are in a new age of populism and as with all previous populist movements, the results are deadly. If you love your countries and your families, understand that populism can be very dangerous - it seeks to treat a society's most productive people as the enemy. In national socialist Germany, populism targeted its society's most accomplished people - small business and shop owners, professionals and scientists - they were objectified and made enemies of the state. They each had small businesses, or professional practices and the freedom that came with the wealth they controlled. The state, working with compliant big businesses and labor, the natural enemies of the independent small business owner, cooperated fully - to survive in some cases, but to profit where they could. The masses, long jealous of the accomplished where given every reason to hate and blame the accomplished professional class in the name of anti-Semitism, but it was a far greater number of small businesses that were destroyed and intentionally so. To understand why, one must examine the leaders and their motivations - who they hated and why. Driven by their own failures, their hatred burned in them for decades and rather than working harder and dusting themselves off and trying again and again, they turned to politics and the power of the state to simply take what they could not earn. We all wonder how it happened - how a bright and accomplished people could be so turned and behave so savagely. Wonder no more. Look out your windows and see for yourself. Populist madness. Rome is the mob and the mob is Rome. Rome burned and without it, nearly a 1000 years had to pass before man moved significantly forward again. Had it not been for populism, man would have likely landed on the moon in 1469. Think about before you support any populist.
If you feel bad for the poor and the weak, then do as we do, help them in every way, every day and those near you. Sacrifice for them on your own, or they will vote for an ideologue over the pragmatists that we all need. Call me senile and irrelevant if you wish, but understand that you’re going to have to burn a lot of books and re-write a lot of history to make it stick. Conservatives are not the enemy. Populist ideologues are.

#24 By 28801 (65.90.202.10) at 4/27/2009 10:35:03 AM
#23: Funny you should mention all of this - I just saw the Gestapo ride through my neighborhood.

#25 By 92283 (70.67.3.196) at 4/27/2009 1:38:59 PM
#24 ACORN?

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