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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Oct 21st 2003 12:41am





Microsoft Taken To Task For Selling Music In A Monopolistic Manner

from the tread-carefully dept

Microsoft, who did an amazing job turning a loss in the anti-trust lawsuit against them into something of a win, has suddenly found themselves in a bit of anti-trust hot water again. Turns out that some folks noticed that Microsoft's "Shop for Music Online" link in Windows (where is this "link"?) takes people directly to a site run by Microsoft. It also opens up Microsoft IE, even if that's not the default browser set up by the end-user. Since one of the slap-on-the-wrist settlement's provisions was that Microsoft placed links could only open up Microsoft sites and applications if all competitive offerings "[fail] to implement a reasonable technical requirement", you can see why some see a reason to take Microsoft on. To me, though, this seems like nitpicking. I'm not convinced that Microsoft has repented from its monopolistic ways, but considering that the company was found guilty and then just slapped on the wrist, to go back to court over something as tiny as this seems kind of silly.

3 Comments | Leave a Comment..


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  1.  

    No Subject Given

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2003 @ 6:49am

    Even if they are found guilty, like last time, the government will bail them out again and again. Fed has too much money and infrastructure invested in this particularly monopoly to allow it to be punished suffiiciently ... if at all.

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  

    iTunes?

    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Oct 21st, 2003 @ 8:49am

    Hehe, I thought this was going to be a story with people blaming Microsoft for how bad Windows iTunes was compared to the Mac one!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  

    Witchhunting?

    identicon
    Thom K., Oct 21st, 2003 @ 2:28pm

    Well, the Gov't didn't *really* win, if you take the perspective that conveniently, as soon as the Atty Genl's for the states finished getting a big Tobacco settlement, the jumped on Microsoft. Guess what? No big payday for the states this time around, so in a way, the gov't lost out on what seemed to be their *real* objective.

    As for the music issue - they have got to be f*#king kidding, right? Microsoft music sales? Nobody I know has even SEEN this link before - and even I needed an article from another site to tell me where and how to find it. And can anyone name *one* person they know who has bought a single piece of music from MS?!? I've bought via iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. etc.

    Someone please explain how a non-existent business (in the consumer's mind) can be monopolistic?!?!

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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