Re: [seul-edu] (FWD) [OS:N:] Apple: Microsoft should pay $1 billion--cash

[Phil Collins <philosofr@yahoo.com>]

A second hearing is scheduled for Monday, December 10 before Judge J.
Frederick Motz, who expects to rule in mid-December. Fax comments to 
Hon. Judge J. Frederick Motz H.S. District Court for the District of
Maryland Fax #: (410) 962-7574.  I sent a fax before the November 27,
2001 hearing. Be courteous to the Judge.

The legal issue is whether the antitrust settlement is in the public
interest.

-- Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu> wrote:
---- Forwarded message from "Drew M. Meeks" <drew@redhat.com>
> Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 17:31:31 -0800
> To: open-source-now-list@redhat.com
> Subject: [OS:N:] Apple: Microsoft should pay $1 billion--cash
> <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-8093709.html?tag=tp_pr>
> 
> Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs said Thursday that Microsoft should
> give $1 billion in cash to help schools, instead of software and
some money, to settle more than 100 consumer lawsuits. 
> [more]
> ----------------
> Well, that would be fairer, I think. :)
> 
> drew
> 
> More Info: http://www.redhat.com/opensourcenow/


Terms of the MS private suit settlement, per MS employee Linda Stone
VP, Office of the CEO, Microsoft Corporation, at 
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200111/msg00294.html
 [BTW, I got to this site from Linus Torvald's English language home
page links (or should I say link):
www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/ ]
   Microsoft will be providing a $150 million initial grant and up to
$100 million in additional 1-to-2 matching funds to a new education
foundation.... [Remember the National Lampoon magazine cover with the
picture of the man holding a gun to the head of a dog and the
caption: "Buy this magazine or we will kill this dog."  Well, MS is
saying to Jack and Jill Public:  "Contribute to our fund or we won't
help the kids with an "extra" $100 million."  If Jack and Jill Public
did contribute, out of guilt --to help poor kids get the "extra" MS
money -- will contributions to other worthy education causes, like
Open Source Software and SchoolForge come tumbling after?]
  Similarly, Microsoft will pay $160 million in cash into a separate
fund overseen by the new education foundation, which will be used for
technical support programs for the participating schools.  Once
again,
the technical support programs are to be product-agnostic --
regardless of whether schools use Macs or PCs... [No mention of OSS
or Red Hat's proposal]
  In addition, Microsoft will pay $90 million to train teachers,
administrators and support staff ...[Train in what?]
  In addition to all of these hard-dollar commitments, Microsoft has
also agreed to provide free software to eligible schools. The value
of this software can only be estimated as it depends on the volume
requested by schools, but it may exceed $500 million valued at
Microsoft's heavily discounted academic prices.  Once again, schools
with PCs can get a wide range of PC titles free of charge, and
schools with Macs can get Microsoft's Mac titles, such as Office and
the Magic Schoolbus learning series.   [Minimal cost to MS, can be
deducted at "value" on the market not cost. Leaves little room for
other software, including OSS, RedHat, SchoolForge,etc.  See also
www.ccianet.org/letters/motz
Letter from Computer & Communications Industry Association on MS
private settlement, Nov. 26,2001.  -- Flooding education market with
free MS software [that is normally charged for] equals predatory
pricing, facilitates unlawful monopoly.  ]



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5206-2001Dec6.html
Lawyers Hone Microsoft Plan:  
Apple [and Red Hat] Presses Opposition to School-Aid Fund 
By Carrie Johnson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 7, 2001; Page E03 

Microsoft Pushes For Settlement:
Critics Fight Deal on Private Lawsuits 
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 28, 2001; Page E03 
In court this morning, the economist [hired by thee plaintiffs
attorneys, who would be paid in the settlement]  estimated the amount
at $2.14 billion but later informed the judge that he had made a
mathematical error and the figure was closer to $5.15 billion.  

"I've just been told there's a negotiation that was based on a
dramatically incorrect figure," Motz said. "It seems to me you've got
to go back to square one to get back to square five or wherever you
are now."
[Comment:  A mathematical error of over 100%?.  SchoolForge should
not have have that economist [unnamed: why?] working on TUX Math --
bad example for the kids!  BTW, what did the plaintiff's attorneys do
with the economist - reduce his pay, slap him on the wrist?  Also,
did MS take action against the techs who actually blocked Mozilla,
new Netscape and Opera from MSN a few weeks ago, and the PR people
who defended it as blocking "non-standards compliant" browsers -- of
which IE egregious, were they nasty rogues or authorized?]




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