Check out the story below. Go ahead. I'll wait.
http://www.betanews.com/article/Step-one-in-the-process-Microsoft-files-appeal-of-Word-injunction/1250694380
Did you read it? If not' it's OK.
Briefly, MS has been issued an injunction, that in a couple months time, they will be unable to sell Word 2003 and Word 2007 (Word 2010 is not affected by this case). The good news is that i4i (eye for eye - funny) says they are not planning on suing anyone other than Microsoft. At least that is what they are saying now. We'll see how this goes if their case holds up.
I have been reading a couple of posts about this topic and I am sad to see that a lot of people are of the opinion that since Microsoft makes so much money on the Office suite that they should get a pass. Wow. How do I even respond to that. I"m sorry, but if they have a valid case, how can you just let it go? Would it suck to not have any updates for Office 2K3 or 2K7? Yes, but you can't just ignore the law because they were making buckets of money off of it.
By the same token, as much as I would find it chuckle worthy if the verdict is not overturned, I can't imagine the wholesale chaos that will envelope the user community from students to IT support staff to deal with the fallout of it. Speaking as an IT guy, you can't necessarily just change your platform on a whim. It took us months of testing to get sign off on moving from Office 2000 to Office 2007. We had to modify some of our apps to use the new file formats and that took time. Where I work is NOT going to adopt an Open Source solution (don't ask me to explain it as I don't understand it myself). That would mean we sit unsupported until Office2010 comes out (hopefully a rush put on my MS, but not TOO much of a rush) and then we scramble to adopt.
It looks to me like MS has a couple of options.
1) Pay some royalty fee and settle the case
2) Issue a patch that prevents the allegedly infringing behavior in Word.
3) Rush 2010 and offer a free upgrade so as not to piss off their customers by leaving them without support
4) Win the appeal
5) Pay the fine and just let the chips fall where they may
MS, as described in the article, is working on the appeal. I am honestly kind of torn as to which way I want this to go. The jealous douche-bag in me wants MS to lose just to take them down a peg or too, but the IT guy in me wants to see MS win because otherwise things could get VERY ugly for me at work.
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The beauty of our judicial system is that Microsoft can probably drag this out in court long enough to not only release 2010 but be legitimately ready to stop supporting 2003 and 2007 on their own time frame.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about this case but, just from reading the article, I am confident that this is a question of fact that any reasonable court can decide. That said, the only reason Microsoft is fighting is because they feel pretty confident they will win. Otherwise, they would just buy i4i and get it over with.
I've said it before and I'll say it again...Microsoft is a lot like God...all powerful, all knowing, omnipresent, twisted sense of humor, and, not in the least, I am pretty sure that both are doing stuff for the sole purpose of fucking with me.
-gen
I have to agree that MS will try to drag this out until they can release Office 2010. But if they're forced by the courts to stop support for '03 and '07 they will settle out to keep that from happening. And I'll be that i4i doesn't want it to come to that either and here's why...
ReplyDeleteLet's take them at face value that they don't want to sue anyone but MS. If that's true then they also don't want to screw over any "innocent users" either. That's means they're in it for 1 of 2 reasons: (or both) They're simply in it for the money, or they want to buise the ego of a giant in front of the world.
Let's look at a previous case... When RIM was being sued for allegedly infringing on a patent for wireless email, Blackberry users were afraid their devices would suddenly stop working if RIM lost. RIM settled and so will MS.
-Matt Bauder