Mississippi takes Microsoft to task for anti-competitive practices

June 15, 2009 · by Haavard

One of the most puzzling comments I see out there when reading about the EU antitrust case is when someone claims that there is some sinister conspiracy behind the whole thing. They are saying that Microsoft is actually innocent, and that Opera and the EU got together to squeeze some money out of Microsoft. They are of course forgetting about the other companies that are part of the trial, such as Google and Mozilla, and they are forgetting about Microsoft's previous convictions both in the US and Korea.

If they are still not convinced that there is something to the antitrust case in the EU, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that Microsoft has been forced to pay $100 million in a settlement with the state of Mississippi because of anti-competitive practices:

Originally posted by seattlepi.com:

The lawsuit is the last and largest of those filed by 21 states in the wake of the 2000 federal decision that proclaimed Microsoft abused its monopoly power by bundling Internet Explorer and Windows.

I really don't understand how anyone can think that Microsoft is innocent. It is, quite simply, mind-boggling. Their explanation is that the EU either doesn't know its own laws, or they bring up the alleged conspiracy to pick on poor an innocent Microsoft.

How quickly some people forget about history.

Readers' comments 9

Left under the original article, as archived.

Tenno SeremelMonday, June 15, 2009 7:07:02 PM
There are surprisingly many Microsoft lovers. And trolls. And Fx fanboys. And… Well, you got the picture.
MyOpera team, please fix this!Monday, June 15, 2009 7:17:06 PM
Title says Texas but story and tags say Mississippi.
zoqueteMonday, June 15, 2009 7:19:39 PM
it is not easy to argue against the "arguments" of IE-lovers like: windows is the product and MS can put there what it wants. All these faul comparizons with a car and driving weel etc and
QUOTE: "every windows user can freely chooze his browser, he does not have to use IE and if he uses IE, it is because IE is the best browser, all pages works in IE, but not in Opera for example".

OS = car
IE = driwing weel
HaavardMonday, June 15, 2009 7:40:31 PM
Wonder where I got Texas from...

Corrected.
GyroboMonday, June 15, 2009 7:41:42 PM
Texas is more alliterative.
Pallab DeMonday, June 15, 2009 8:07:34 PM
Originally posted by Haruka aka Seremel:

There are surprisingly many Microsoft lovers. And trolls. And Fx fanboys. And… Well, you got the picture.

Yeah. Incredible. I came across this comment on another tech board :

"We are so deep in the !@#$ing economic crisis, and our only hope is to use the law as an excuse to get money from rich companies."
MyOpera team, please fix this!Monday, June 15, 2009 8:21:35 PM
Originally posted by haavard:

Wonder where I got Texas from...
Problem just popped into your head because it's such an awesome place.
Charles SchlossMonday, June 15, 2009 9:37:27 PM
Did the other case in the US ever finish against Microsoft?
Mad Scientist (عادل)Tuesday, June 16, 2009 6:54:01 AM
The average consumer just goes out and buys a computer. They don't even know that you can get other operating systems and browsers than the 'built in' ones. .
Fortunately, phone users are simply not satisfied with built in browsers. We want better so we look for it. .
And then, when we do get a computer, we avoid Mickey$oft. .