OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/20528/3_Flat-Screen_Makers_Plead_Guilty_to_Price_Fixing Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:53:39 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Page 2? http://osnews.com/thread?337211 http://osnews.com/thread?337211 Isn't this story just what "page 2" was set-up for?

Regards,
Tooonie. Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Toonie) Comments RE: Page 2? http://osnews.com/thread?337216 http://osnews.com/thread?337216 IMHO, it is a very important and interesting computing related news that deserves front page. Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JrezIN) Comments kickbacks? http://osnews.com/thread?337219 http://osnews.com/thread?337219 Why don't they give some money back to the consumers that were directly effected by this? ( I doubt I would be effected directly ) Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (firl) Comments Oh ouch... http://osnews.com/thread?337222 http://osnews.com/thread?337222 This could be good. Perhaps these companies will settle and offer computer manufacturers a much much better deal (discounted beyond what is normal) and maybe, if we are lucky, we will see some of that.

On the other hand, Apple and Dell might just swallow it and charge the same prices and make lots more profit. ;) Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Tuishimi) Comments RE: kickbacks? http://osnews.com/thread?337223 http://osnews.com/thread?337223 With you on that... I'd love to see some cash returned to me from my Summer purchase of a new TV. On the other hand, I bought it at Circuit City... Hmmmm. Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Tuishimi) Comments RE: kickbacks? http://osnews.com/thread?337224 http://osnews.com/thread?337224 Well, how do you know Apple and Dell didn't absorb the costs themselves? Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (pandronic) Comments RE[2]: kickbacks? http://osnews.com/thread?337229 http://osnews.com/thread?337229 because up until now those were the standard prices, so whatever they Apple/Dell were charging was with the price factored in, hence it wouldn't really be "swallowing it" that phrase is kind of reserved if the prices had jumped higher suddenly but they continued to charge the same.

but yeah the question is now whether the consumer will see anything from this. My guess is yes, just because with the economy down I suspect that it's better for them to sell more laptops than make an extra 20-30 bucks per, and a drop in prices would probably help that, though not having their numbers, I can't say that for certain. Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (axel) Comments Netbooks http://osnews.com/thread?337246 http://osnews.com/thread?337246 I seem to recall that overpriced displays were cited as a reason for the EEE, OLPC and others failing to live up to their low price ambitions.

Now we know why. Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Michael) Comments RE: Netbooks http://osnews.com/thread?337251 http://osnews.com/thread?337251 Not for OLPC because its LCD is unlike traditional version because it can be read directly on sunlight.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Display Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Finalzone) Comments RE[2]: Page 2? http://osnews.com/thread?337279 http://osnews.com/thread?337279 at the same time, ubuntu-on-arm goes to page 2... Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (hobgoblin) Comments How ironic http://osnews.com/thread?337303 http://osnews.com/thread?337303 Quite ironic, Asian flat panel cartel gets a fina of hundreds of millions of dollars, while the domestic banking cartel gets a hundreds of billions of dollars give-away. :-)

In any case, the Asians have no idea what to do with the dollars they import for their exports anyway, so instead of buying US treasury bonds they might as well just give it straight to the DoJ in cash.

I doubt those firms with multi billion dollar revenues really care that much. Fines don't help. Banning them from the market does. But consumerism is deemed to keep the American economy from dying (albeit in a coma) so I doubt they'll ever do that. Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (h3rman) Comments RE: How ironic http://osnews.com/thread?337351 http://osnews.com/thread?337351 globalization only "works" if the world becomes like usa...

anything else is to unfriendly to the US economy, and their big corps...Edited 2008-11-15 20:33 UTC Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (hobgoblin) Comments RE: How ironic http://osnews.com/thread?337358 http://osnews.com/thread?337358
Fines don't help.

Multi-billion dollar fines would. The problem is humans, and the justice system, which is made up of humans, do not deal with scale well. By the time the fines get into the hundreds of millions of dollars people are thinking "Holy crap! That's a huge amount of money!", when in fact the corporate petty cash accounts' expenditures for the year for the companies being fined might exceed that sum.

Price fixing is *far* more serious than a traffic ticket. And yet these companies get fined, relatively speaking, amounts which compare to their yearly revenues similarly to the how a traffic ticket would compare to yours or my yearly income, leaving plenty of disposable income for buying that radar detector we've been meaning to get anyway. Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE[2]: How ironic http://osnews.com/thread?337359 http://osnews.com/thread?337359
globalization only "works" if the world becomes like usa...


The important question if anybody says "it works" is always "to whom"?
I.e., cui bono?

anything else is to unfriendly to the US economy, and their big corps...


It's the FIRE sector that rules the world, and we have to become aware of it and destroy that rule. Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (h3rman) Comments RE[2]: How ironic http://osnews.com/thread?337361 http://osnews.com/thread?337361
"Fines don't help.

Multi-billion dollar fines would. The problem is humans, and the justice system, which is made up of humans, do not deal with scale well. By the time the fines get into the hundreds of millions of dollars people are thinking "Holy crap! That's a huge amount of money!", when in fact the corporate petty cash accounts' expenditures for the year for the companies being fined might exceed that sum. "

Capitalist states will never allow those type of fines to become a real threat to a multinational corporation anyway. On the other hand, the US wouldn't really have to care much about Asian firms.. but given the fact that Asia is already quite upset about what the US financial system has done to them (I'm referring to the credit meltdown), I think there's a line the US should not cross here. ;-)

Price fixing is *far* more serious than a traffic ticket. And yet these companies get fined, relatively speaking, amounts which compare to their yearly revenues similarly to the how a traffic ticket would compare to yours or my yearly income, leaving plenty of disposable income for buying that radar detector we've been meaning to get anyway.


There's more to this. The dollar has declined steadily over the past few years, and that hurts Asian corporations who see their revenues decline. Then again, they're not prepared, or too much cowards, to just leave the US market altogether. The irony here is that keeping the revenues on a certain level by illegal price fixing might give US consumers (corporate or the shopping crowd) more of a break than when some of them would have decided to stop exporting to the US for the few crumbs it makes them, driving up the price in the US in the process.
The US market will slowly but steadily disappear for those firms anyway, the American consumer market is not going to be able to afford high-tech imports after the fall of the dollar, when it eventually happens.
The future for firms like LGE is the solar panel market, which will explode. I almost fear they're toostupid to even see that. Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (h3rman) Comments