Comments on: Feds: Microsoft not meeting deadlines in antitrust settlement

Justice Department says company is behind schedule in efforts to comply with consent decree requiring it disclose server protocols to rivals.

[befuddledms]

What, Microsft dragging it's feet?

Never

[t8]

The reason why MS drags it's feet

MS drags it's feet because the courts haven't penalized MS enough to make them adhere to US laws and decrees. In other words it is worth MS time to delay because they will gain more than they will lose.

Look at the EU's stance. They don't take any crap and MS is being whipped into line. The EU has made breaking their laws unprofitable. Profits are the only thing MS cares about, so that is where you have to hit them if you want compliance.

[dargon19888]

Yes and No.

Yes the EU is fining Microsoft a ton of money.
And no, its not whipping them in to line.

I dont believe that Microsoft has yet to pay the fine. They are using any and every legal manuver to drag things out.

And yes, you are correct. They do this because the fines are cheaper than losing the revenue from lost sales.

Interestingly enough, consumers are/were hurt by settlements that included discounts on future purchases of Microsoft products. Rather than opening the marketplace for competition, it is actually closing the marketplace. Why by a competing product when you can purchase a microsoft product at a steep discount and then get locked in for a series of future upgrades?

Unless Microsoft is forced to pay back hard capital, you'll never see them back down to anyone.

[Northwolf]

Why..??

They are VERY reluctant to reveal the code of the stolen procedures. Can you imagine the loss of face when it is made public that they use LINUX and Other stolen code.

[ajbright]

And what?

We are supposed to be surprised that a toothless anti-trust outcome is not being complied with?

What exactly are the consequences for Microsoft for failing to meet DOJ deadlines? Apparently nothing, unless you consider the DOJ being concerned to be some sort of penalty.

If I don't pay my court ordered fines or perform community service or other sanctioned penalties the very least I face is additional financial penalties; but I would be more likely to face prison time for contempt of court.

The outcome was pretty much pathetic considering the laws they were supposed to have violated. And probably because of this M$ consider the DOJ to be so contempt worthy that they can dictate when and what parts of the settlement they abide by.

After all, there doesn't appear to be any sort of penalty for first submitting sub standard compliance, and then deciding they can set their own agenda for compliance - thereby ignoring the settlement until they feel like abiding by it.

Surely these are grounds for ripping this settlement up and actually dealing out some real punishment for their transgressions.

I hope for the sake of their reputation the DOJ actually do something worthwhile now. Because if they don't corporate America will surely view this as precedent for legally ignoring any settlement they come to in future anti-trust cases.

[lschweiss]

Disclosures worthless to the real competition

Really who cares about this issue?

The only real competition that could benefit from the disclosure of all the server protocols is GPL based developments. Microsoft has made the terms of releasing this documentation so that it can never be used in any GPL project and for some reason this is okay with the DOJ.

When the most significant competition to Microsoft is excluded from the benefits of the settlement with the DOJ, what competition has been restored?

Let's face it, real efforts from the DOJ or the EU to stop Microsoft from abusing its monopoly position just aren't going to happen. Apparently big business is just to important to government agencies these days.

[lschweiss]

Worthless terms

Really who cares about this issue?

The only real competition that could benefit from the disclosure of all the server protocols is GPL based developments. Microsoft has made the terms of releasing this documentation so that it can never be used in any GPL project and for some reason this is okay with the DOJ.

When the most significant competition to Microsoft is excluded from the benefits of the settlement with the DOJ, what competition has been restored?

Let's face it, real efforts from the DOJ or the EU to stop Microsoft from abusing its monopoly position just aren't going to happen. Apparently big business is just to important to government agencies these days.