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Microsoft's Contemptuous Performance of Its Settlement Agreement
Posted by Ernest Miller on Wednesday, October 16 @ 22:37:44 EDT Antitrust
Microsoft, in a move that will, in a just universe, backfire, continues to guard technical protocols it promised to release. Microsoft's efforts, as reported in the Washington Post, seem distinctly fashioned to inhibit Microsoft's biggest competitors, the free software and open source movements (Critics Say Microsoft Is Up to Old Tricks). Microsoft is being quite ridiculous in its demands:
In order to gain access, a company would have to use Microsoft's "Passport" identity authentication system, then request and sign two forms - one of them promising secrecy - just to see the license terms and find how much Microsoft is charging for the information.
"[J]ust to see the license terms." I really hope that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is expected to rule soon on the settlement, takes this reticence into account. Of course, the existing settlement permits Microsoft to charge for access to the protocols themselves anyway. So, the only threat to Microsoft's monopoly, open source, will be unable to take advantage of the settlement regardless. Antitrust just ain't what it used to be. Slashdot readers unfavorably compare Microsoft's compliance with the settlement agreement to Saddam Hussein's compliance with the UN's weapon inspection resolutions (Microsoft Settlement Compliance Criticized).
 
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Related Links
· Microsoft
· Washington Post
· free software
· open source
· Critics Say Microsoft Is Up to Old Tricks
· Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
· Slashdot
· Microsoft Settlement Compliance Criticized
· More about Antitrust
· News by Ernest Miller


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