Re: fbi, crypto, and defcon

[Steven L Baur <steve@miranova.com>]

>>>>> "Paul" == Paul J Bell <pjb@ny.ubs.com> writes:

jonathon> When I purchased my computers, I had to pay $150 to not have
jonathon> Windows and Dos installed on them.  That $150 went to Microsoft.
jonathon> It seemed to me that I was being ripped off, by Microsoft.

Paul> as i said, i have no use for microsoft, whats more, i don't use
Paul> microsoft.  that said, if a person really must pay to not have
Paul> their products installed, i agree that that is intorelable, and
Paul> at the least calls for finding a new vendor for computers. if
Paul> you really don't plan to use dos or windows, there is no reason
Paul> why you should pay for them. frankly, this sounds like a real
Paul> stupid move on the part of your hardware vendor. maybe you need
Paul> to shop around.

This is exactly what a new lawsuit recently filed against Microsoft is
about.  See
	http://www.caldera.com/news/pr001.html
for details.

They've already had their hand slapped for the per-processor license
agreements they pushed in the early '90s.  The per-processor licenses
were where Microsoft forced hardware vendors to pay a certain fee
based on CPUs sold regardless of what system software was delivered on
them.
-- 
steve@miranova.com baur
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