We interrupt a series of postings about the abysmal state of affairs in the world of information security to bring you this heartening bulletin: Convicted monopolist Microsoft must pay IBM almost $800 million "to resolve claims it bullied the big computer maker during the 1990s."
It is good to see justice meted out in a manner that Microsoft might understand, cash leaving its bank accounts. I am particularly pleased because Microsoft has never, to my knowledge, apologized to us poor sods who lost money in the fruitless struggle to make non-Microsoft applications run on a Microsoft OS that we later learned was intentionally rigged to foil us.
But consider the words: "resolve claims it bullied the big computer maker." This is how John Boudreau of the Mercury News described the news, and he is one of the better hi-tech journalists. Yet I'm tempted to take issue with the word "claims." After all, Microsoft was found guilty. Microsoft bullied other companies. That's a fact, not a claim.
No comments:
Post a Comment