That's ... but ... I mean ... THEY CAN'T JUST ... aww crap

Post #18,953 by drewk 11/20/01 12:05:23 PM Reply	That's ... but ... I mean ... THEY CAN'T JUST ... aww crap Everyone who believes this giveaway actually "costs" them anything please raise your hand. So the penalty for overcharging millions of consumers is to allow them to "upgrade" all the schools (start them young!) with software that has an explicit forced march built into the license. And this was a plaintiff's attorney who came up with this? Oh yeah, the lawyer was only looking at dollar signs. And who wants to bet the attorney's fees will be based on a percentage of the $1.1 billion MS is claiming this will "cost" them? We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link\|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html\|Thomas Friedman]
Post #18,956 by inthane-chan 11/20/01 12:14:58 PM Reply	Oldest game in the book. Back when I (briefly) worked at a local community college, I was introduced to Microsoft's "charitable education" stuff at work. Basically it goes like this: Microsoft releases a list of software, with full retail prices listed. They also tell the institution "you have this much $$$ to purchase stuff with." The institutions "purchase" the software, recieve the licenses, and Microsoft gets a tax writeoff for the full value of the software. Nice scam, eh? "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #19,083 by mhuber 11/21/01 12:48:29 AM Reply	Attorney gets a percentage I'd like to see a rule that the attorneys get their percentage in the same form as their clients. For another example, the Blockbuster settlement, which was in the form of coupons very similar to the ones Blockbuster gives out all the time anyway. I'm sure the lawyer didn't take his fee in 2-for-1 video rentals. And I'm sure this one isn't taking his in software. ---- "You don't have to be right - just use bolded upper case" - annon.

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