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Microsoft Settles Korean Antitrust Case
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Tue Nov 15, 2005 09:00 AM
from the thank-god-i-was-not-worried-at-all dept.
from the thank-god-i-was-not-worried-at-all dept.
Channy writes Microsoft announced on last Friday that it had reached a settlement with South Korean Internet portal Daum in antitrust case of IM bundling. Daum had complained to the South Korean Fair Trade Commission in 2001, accusing Microsoft of breaking the law by tying its instant messaging software to Windows. A lawsuit on the same grounds was filed in 2004. By the settlement, Microsoft will pay Daum $30 million, including $10 million in cash. In return, Daum would drop its lawsuit. Before this decision, Microsoft has threatened to withdraw its Windows software from South Korea if the country's antitrust agency orders it to unbundle its instant-messaging and media player software from the operating system. Despite this settlement, KFTC announced plans to continue investigation of this case and conclude the final decision within this year."
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Where's the 20M$ (Score:2, Interesting)
Where's the 20M$ remaining? Are they paying in licenses? Again? How long before MS licenses are on the forex rates?
Re:Where's the 20M$ (Score:4, Funny)
At current rates, $20 million in MS fun bucks can purchase 4 force feedback joysticks, a copy of 'Age of Empries, 10 Microsoft branded tote bags and a dozen MS ballpoint pens. With enough left over for a cheese and mushroom omlet at the cafeteria.
Parent
How does that work? (Score:3, Interesting)
So.. the other $20M will be in the form of an NSF cheque?
And when is the drop for the cash going down? Is the $10M going to be in small, non-sequentially numbered, unmarked bills?
is it profitable? (Score:2)
otherwise how would it look like if whole Korea switched off windows?
Re:is it profitable? (Score:3, Insightful)
It would be like an enormous proof of concept, demonstrating that a country can safely ditch Microsoft products without drawbacks.
Re:is it profitable? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:is it profitable? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:is it profitable? (Score:4, Funny)
This is MS - is there a difference?
Parent
This should drive China to Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
What will happen when China stops using Windows and also becomes the leading maker and buyer of PCs? Companies that do business with China (and most do) will see less and less advantages in staying 100% Windows and less and less likely to buy Microsoft's nonstandard applications.
Re:This should drive China to Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
The bad news for Microsoft: China decided to do this by switching to Chinese companies, many of which develop for Linux.
And what is interesting about this article? Check the date: Wed Jan 09 2002
Parent
Re:This should drive China to Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
b) and after several years, the remaining linux howtos will only be understandable when you are able to read Chinese.
lucklily that will take quite some years, unless the assassinate the leading kernel/kde/gnome developers and install liu touva & other dudes named like that in place. instead you should be affraid china forking their own linux project all together and the mess that this will create (and they will rename it to Leenux)
c) with the corruption and illegal action rates currently in china, not even the forbidding order from the goverment can stop windows from being pirated there all over the place.
d) imagine the power of developers currently kept back behind the "china's wall". there may be a next "einstein of code" hidden there.
Parent
Re:This should drive China to Linux (Score:3, Funny)
Correction there: They will rename it to Chinux (-:
consumers (Score:5, Insightful)
OK, but "justice has not been served". The problem of unfairly putting Microsoft's IM client in a favorable light is still there, and this company will still lose their market share to them, and consumers will still be worse off for having lost some competition.
Winner: The one with the deepest pockets! Subverting the not-quite-free-market to hurt consumers everywhere!
Re:consumers (Score:3, Informative)
Don't disagree with anything you are saying, but either I misunderstood your use of the term "free market" or you misunderstand its meaning.
In a true "free market" there are no law or regulations governing commerce. The idea is the market will sort it all out itself. So in a true free market none of these lawsuits against MS would have any merit. Sometimes people seem to confuse "free market" with "fair market". The two are actually qu
Re:consumers (Score:3, Insightful)
Far less than $30mil (Score:5, Interesting)
So that's only really $10mil. The advertising probably won't cost MS much (they probably couldn't sell it for $10mil to anyone else - they wouldn't advertise a competitor anywhere noticeable anyway), and "unspecified business terms"? That's just giving MS more business - even if they don't make money from it, they won't lose much (they have to employ all their people anyway - might as well keep them busy).
So Daum gain $30mil, prehaps, but MS don't lose anywhere near that much. I don't know South Korean law, but I expect they could have won far more if they'd gone to court.
How much difference does this make? (Score:4, Insightful)
There's nothing to see here. Move along.
...so the bottom line is... (Score:3, Interesting)
Implications for MA OpenDoc case (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft is imposing some restrictions on the MSXML format -- and it would appear that they might be able to change those restrictions at some future time.
If they are willing to cut off an entire country, then potentially it may be impossible legally to read and modify that country's documents. Massachussets has to be aware that if it could happen to Korea, it could potentially happen to MA if they are too uppity.
We'll see if Massachussets officials can withstand the full-court press of Microsoft's hard-bought political muscle, but if anything should give those officials some backbone, it's this kind of nonsense.
Thad Beier
Mod me troll if you want (Score:4, Insightful)
What I DO have a problem with is the amount of "digging" the average person has to do to find a way to remove them if they dont want them there.
Re:Mod me troll if you want (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft's IM client isn't just bundled: it launches automatically every time you load Windows, pops up with an alert telling you to sign up for an account, and stays in your taskbar unless you know how to get rid of it (the average user doesn't know how).
Also, Apple doesn't run their own IM network; their client works with AIM and Jabber, and doesn't display advertisements. You can use Apple's client to connect to a third-party network without registering with Apple for anything.
Parent
MS Messenger vs. Apple Quicktime iChat (Score:3, Interesting)
New Solution to compliment MSFT's decision (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft Gives Daum $30Million, South Korea switches to Ubuntu. $30Mil would buy what, 60,000 computers that could run Ubuntu smoothly? (monitor included) And they could choose whether or not to install an instant messenger application!
A Skit:
Big Business, indeed (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess this is one of the reasons why the European Union exists. One country alone, if it isn't a really big one like the US, is simply too small a market to matter to the global players if you annoy them too much. AFAIK, Microsoft never threatened to withdraw their products from the European market during the antitrust proceedings there.
Re:When is Microsoft not being sued? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm being quite serious, in that Microsoft seem to keep getting sued left, right, and center, all through the bundling of software products within its operating system.
It feels like some companies are jumping on the bandwagon, knowing they'll get a settlement.