Legal Archive

Consumers Up In Arms Over Hard Drive Scam

David Adams 2003-09-19 Legal 50 Comments

Isn't it annoying when you buy a new 160 GB hard drive and when you get it all formatted and ready it'll only hold 152 GB? Well, a couple of guys are not going to take it lying down, and they've sued the major HD vendors (PC Makers) to prevent them from overstating their products' capacities. This issue is similar to that of the "viewable area" of CRT monitors, where manufacturers were eventually forced to admit that a 17" monitor actually has a 15.2" viewable area.

SCO vs IBM: Battle Continues

Submitted by linares 2003-08-14 Legal 40 Comments

SCO has terminated IBM's Dynix licence. Dynix was a product developed by Sequent, which was acquired by IBM in 1999. Technology developed by Sequent for its Unix OS (Dynix) called Numa was subsequently rolled into Linux. According to this article at Vnunet.com, it looks like a lot of this goes back to SCO's bitterness about project Monterrey, a joint venture between SCO, Intel, and IBM. IBM withdrew from the project, which was SCO's last chance at the big time.

McNealy: “Don’t Touch” Linux Without Legal Guarantees

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-31 Legal 129 Comments

Scott McNealy, the chairman, president and CEO of systems vendor Sun Microsystems, has dramatically warned companies of the legal dangers of using open source software such as the Linux operating system. Following on from SCO Group's threats to sue Linux users over its intellectual property claims, McNealy told an audience of UK businesses that they should steer clear of open source software unless their suppliers can offer insurance against such legal action.

Intellectual Property and Linux

Guest post by Roberto Dohnert 2003-07-28 Legal 75 Comments

By now you have all undoubtedly heard about SCO's lawsuit against IBM and the threat that it reflects on the Linux community. The news sites and web forums have been alive with speculation about how this case will pan out, articles either show many shortcomings of Open Source development or how wrong SCO is and how bad they are going to lose.

Judge OKs $1.1 Billion Microsoft deal

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-19 Legal 26 Comments

A California judge on Friday gave preliminary approval to a landmark settlement under which Microsoft will pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action suit that claimed it overcharged consumers for Windows.

One State Left in Microsoft fight

Eugenia Loli 2003-07-16 Legal 36 Comments

The Justice Department and 19 states have made peace with Microsoft Corp. over its monopolistic misdeeds. But Tom Reilly is still on the company’s case. The Massachusetts attorney general is the lone public sector holdout who has refused to settle with the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant over allegations that it attempted to crush competitors with monopolistic tactics.

UNIX’s Courtroom Adventures Continue

Eugenia Loli 2003-06-11 Legal 131 Comments

Apple Computer is being sued by The Open Group, the San Francisco company that claims ownership of the Unix trademark, for using the term Unix in conjunction with its Mac OS X operating system without a license. Apple has countersued, asking a judge to declare that the trademark is invalid, because the term Unix has become generic. This legal battle, though separate from SCO's recent claim that Linux uses copyrighted Unix source code, adds further fire to the debate over the custody of Unix--the 30 plus-year old OS originally developed by AT&T.

IBM Denies Charges of Unix theft

Eugenia Loli 2003-05-01 Legal 59 Comments

Big Blue denies SCO Group's allegations that it misappropriated Unix trade secrets, but it isn't giving hints about what its eventual strategy will be for battling the lawsuit.

Linus Torvalds Comments on SCO-Caldera’s Linux-Related Allegations

Eugenia Loli 2003-03-10 Legal 19 Comments

MozillaQuest has an exclusive mini-interview with Linus Torvalds regarding the SCO-IBM law suit.

Microsoft Fires Back at Sun in Java Case

Guest post by Kevin Adams 2003-02-22 Legal 16 Comments

"Microsoft went on the offensive Friday in the antitrust case brought against it by Sun Microsystems, accusing its bitter rival of violating California law through 'unfair competition.' In a court filing, the software giant asked a judge for attorney's fees and damages to cover what it characterized as Sun's unlawful violation of a settlement inked in an earlier lawsuit over the Java programming language." Read more at News.com.

Java in Windows: Is Sun Running Out of Time?

Eugenia Loli 2003-02-11 Legal 59 Comments

The battle between Sun and Microsoft over inclusion of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) in Windows wages on. At stake, according to a U.S. District Court, is the fairness of the fight between Java and .Net. for middleware supremacy. Read the analysis at ZDNet TechUpdate.

Microsoft Told to Ship Java in 120 Days

Eugenia Loli 2003-01-16 Legal 49 Comments

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Microsoft to begin shipping Sun Microsystems' Java with the Windows operating system within 120 days, after the companies fought over implementing a ruling he made last month.

Judge Gives Mixed Ruling in Be/Burst/Sun-Microsoft Cases

Eugenia Loli 2003-01-10 Legal 79 Comments

Microsoft Corp. won some and lost some on Friday in its efforts to get a federal judge to dismiss antitrust lawsuits filed by Sun Microsystems Inc., Be Inc. and Burst.com Inc. U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz denied Microsoft's motions in the Be and Burst.com case in a hearing this morning. But this afternoon, Motz granted requests to dismiss some of the counts raised by Sun, while taking others under review.

Judge Orders MS to Carry Java

Guest post by Mike Bouma 2002-12-24 Legal 186 Comments

The order to carry Java with Windows will remain in force pending the final outcome of Sun Microsystem's antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft. According to Sun, Microsoft tried to marginalise Java by unfair usage of its software monopoly position, making Windows incompatible with its platform independent programming language. More info at CBSNews.com and CNET News.com.

Microsoft Shows Teeth to its Own Promoters

Eugenia Loli 2002-12-11 Legal 68 Comments

These frivolous news comes from fellow news web site, windowsxp.nu, which is one of the well known sites for Windows-related news on the web (traffic-wise seems to be similar to OSNews, around 90,000 page views per day). Microsoft sent a legal threat to Steven Bink to hand over the site before Dec 19th, otherwise they will respond legally. Microsoft has taken a similar hard line against other similar Web sites in the past; in 1998, the company demanded that Paul Thurrott should change the name of the 'Windows SuperSite' to 'SuperSite for Windows', and Active Windows was forced to change its name to ActiveWin. Read more for a short editorial on the subject.

Justice Fails in Microsoft Case

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-05 Legal 51 Comments

"Microsoft's gamble to break the law to fend off competition paid huge dividends. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly's decision Friday permits Microsoft to repeat illegal acts and lets it retain all of the fruits of its illegal behavior. The way is now paved for a Microsoft-owned Internet." Read the rest at USAToday.

Microsoft Gets Away With One

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-04 Legal 23 Comments

"In short words, the company broke the law--and got away with it. It's been a while, I know, since the Court of Appeals upheld the original trial's Findings of Fact, sending only the question of appropriate remedy back to the lower court for reconsideration. But as I noted at the time, one of the crucial questions was whether Microsoft could freely stifle potential competing technologies without abusing its monopoly powers. The company claimed that the very novelty of alternative platforms, such as the Java-enabled browser, kept them from being part of the market in which Microsoft's monopoly exists." Read the editorial at eWeek.

Judge OKs most of Microsoft Settlement

Eugenia Loli 2002-11-01 Legal 89 Comments

A federal judge largely approves a proposed settlement in the years-old antitrust case. The government praised the decision, while critics said the case should have looked at what Microsoft's up to now. It may not be completely over, yet; the remaining states could appeal.

Microsoft Blow in Private Antitrust Case

Eugenia Loli 2002-10-28 Legal 12 Comments

Plaintiffs in private antitrust lawsuits including Sun, Netscape and Be win a point as they are told they may be able to use findings from the government's earlier case.

Greek Anti-Game Law Declared Unconstitutional

Submitted by MrZammler 2002-09-11 Legal 18 Comments

The court decided yesterday, at a trial where an internet cafe's owner was charged of letting his customers play Counter Strike, that the law that prohibited playing games is unconstitutional. This paves the way for the law to be struck down. There's some additional information at ZDNet UK.