The toman diaries

MS offices raided in Tokyo

torsdag, februar 26, 2004

Quote from the BBC:

"The Fair Trade Commission alleges that Microsoft insists that if the companies - such as NEC, Hitachi and Sony - want to pre-install its Windows software on their computers, they must sign away their right to sue the US giant, even if they find it has used their patent technology."
...
"Unless Japanese companies agree to the clause, they cannot pre-install Windows in their computers."

Interesting indeed. How the hell is this even possible for companies to sign on such a thing? I'm sure the commision wouldn't raid if they didn't have evidence. The allegation is pretty straight forward, they've probably seen the contracts.

I just hope the judicial system in Japan isn't bribable or lets itself be fooled by MS' statements that "its the customers who will suffer" like they do in Europe right now. You're damn right it will be the customers. Your customers. - There are other products but yours, and if you didn't hide your interfaces to your technology while bundling your products, it would be a fair game.

(Not that the two are directly related though...)