Microsoft and Iowa dream up settlement

next......

OK ... Wish it said enough to figure out if this settlement is a good deal or a bad deal.

How much money -- not Microsoft software, though maybe the wholesale value of hardware -- is Microsoft actually laying out?

Does it really matter how much they laid out? They'll recoup that in no time in upgrades. I love it how MS gets punished by having to provide their technology for free. I mean really, what if we did that to all law breakers? Hey Mr. Crack dealer, instead of hefty fines, jail time or changing your occupation we are are going to make you give away crack to all our schools. Yeah, that's fair; and now that the schools are hooked they have to pay up for their next hit.

Quoting:Talking to other students, this time at the University of Washington's business school students in 1998, he's also quoted as saying:

"Although about three million computers get sold every year in China, people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. And as long as they're going to steal it, we want them to steal ours.

"They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

The next decade is here and Gates is keeping his promise.

(Saturday 3rd July 2004)

http://p2pnet.net/story/1819

Quoting: Published: July 2, 1998 Gates shed some light on his own hard-nosed business philosophy. "Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-212942.html

> I mean really, what if we did that to all law breakers? Hey Mr. Crack dealer, instead of hefty fines, jail time or changing your occupation we are are going to make you give away crack to all our schools.

Actually, that would be a punishment for the dealer. He'd still have to buy from a supplier. For Microsoft, the cost is either a CD and then burning it, or bandwidth so someone can download it. Basically zero.