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Posted on 06/20/2002 12:04:10 PM PDT by Dominic Harr
Microsoft accused of technology theft
Thu Jun 20, 9:09 AM ET
Lisa M. Bowman
In a new suit that echoes earlier charges from Netscape, Sun Microsystems and others, Microsoft is accused of bullying companies out of using Burst.com products and stealing the streaming company's technology.
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In the complaint, lawyers for Burst said Microsoft's actions have caused the company "serious and continuing damage and have deprived consumers of valuable new technologies that threatened to disturb Microsoft's strategy to maintain and expand its operating system's dominance to the delivery of high-quality video over the Internet."
Burst said Microsoft gained access to its streaming technology while the two companies were trying to negotiate a deal for the rights to it. Burst said those talks fell through and instead Microsoft took the technology and put it in Corona.
A Microsoft spokesman said company executives could not comment on the suit's specifics because they had just received it, but he defended the technology in Corona.
"Microsoft has innovated with digital media technologies in Windows for more than 10 years," Jon Murchinson said in a statement. "The fast streaming technology coming in Windows Media Corona is an example of work by Microsoft to deliver an even more compelling streaming experience to users."
Many companies have made similar claims against the software giant over the years. Sun accused Microsoft of incorporating a corrupted version of Java into its products in an attempt to stifle the technology's popularity. RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser told a Senate panel that Microsoft "broke" his company's media player in an attempt to convince people to switch to its player.
And Netscape, now a division of AOL Time Warner, sparked the federal antitrust case by complaining that the company, among other things, thwarted delivery of its browser. At the trial, executives from companies including Intel and Apple Computer accused Microsoft of exerting undue pressure on partners and competitors to maintain its dominance--actions Microsoft defended as tough, but not illegal, business tactics.
Despite a long list of court actions against it, the company has had to make relatively few changes to its business practices. The antitrust trial, now entering its fifth year, is ongoing. On Wednesday, Microsoft and representatives of the nine states still suing the company for anticompetitive behavior were in court for closing arguments in the latest round in the case.
They use force, fraud, theft, coercion and purposeful breach of contract to make sure they don't have to compete.
And so it continues.
Ping.
Don't like all this evidence of MS's illegalities?
Don't shoot the messenger . . .
No, that's vandalism.
They do not have that right.
Obviously so.
But more specifically, as relates to this and the Netscape and BeOS and Stac and . . . many cases:
MS can not take the IP of others, put it in their software, and then use their clout to lean on the retailers to drop the original product and use the stolen one.
That behavior is illegal. It's MS's standard tactic -- "Embrace, Extend, Extinquish".
MS did not become who they are by being capitalists.
Remember who John Galt refused to work for, who he went "on strike" against . . .
Who is John Galt?
I'm on your side of this issue. My son, a high-level developer, knows MS is crooked. It's cost him and plenty of other smart developers a bundle and cost consumers innovative products.
You do indeed have a point.
But since this is what, the how many dozenth time MS has been in trouble for this specific thing, odds are it's accurate.
And this is specifially the 'Elephant in the living room' with this MS case. The MS defenders completely ignore MS's history of 'Embrace, Extend, Extinguish', completely ignore the court losses, completely ignore all the *other*, already proven cases in which MS's illegalities were well proven with a mountain of evidence.
But you are right.
Nothing has yet been proven this time.
And if/when it is, the MS defenders will just call me a "basher" again and ignore the evidence. Again!
I am not shooting the messenger, but after several years of reading these threads, the constant whining about big bad Microsoft gets very tiresome. If you don't like MS, that's fine, don't use their products. I do not see evidence of illegalities; I see evidence of envy.
Agreed.
Then you have not looked at the evidence.
As in this accusation -- Stac, BeOS, heck, literally dozens of times, MS steals the IP of others then calls the retailers and tells them that if they don't drop the original product in favor of MS's version which does the same thing (since it's the *same* code) then the retailer will lose their Windows discounts.
That's illegal, heinous, and very anti-capitalistic.
I'm sorry if you're tired of seeing software people complain about MS's constant crimes, but they're serious crimes destroying lives and honest companies.
Pretty much everyone in the industry not working for MS knows it.
The only people you'll see defending MS either are MS 'strategic partners' or have no experience with the IT biz.
:-D
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