I have heard it said "Would you want your fate put in the hands of people that could not figure out how to get out of jury duty?". Well, Microsoft is glad there are at least appeals available. In this case the ability to process MP3 files was valued at 1.5 billion USD!!! If your PC came without the ability to process MP3 how much less valuable would it be? I'd say it would cost me 5 minutes to go and find some free download and that's 5 minutes of goof off time which I would value at about $2 before taxes. For more check out links to the story here.
A U.S. federal jury found that Microsoft Corp. infringed audio patents held by Alcatel-Lucent and should pay $1.52 billion in damages, the No. 1 software maker said Thursday. http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TECH/02/22/microsoft.verdict.reut/index.html Alcatel-Lucent had accused the world's biggest software maker of infringing patents related to standards used for playing MP3 digital music files. Who knows with the appeal, an all round winner for the lawyers but maybe Microsoft will win the appeal You never know in this crazy world of legal issues
Yes, I have read a bit about it. It seems that the lawsuit is relayed to some MP3 patents that were held by Alcatel, even before it went to the German firm that established the MP3 standard. In a way, this is like payback to MS. At times, they act like a big bully, who starts cowering when people fight back. Just a few days ago, Ballmer was dissing the Open Source movement and threatening potential lawsuits.
It's enough.... Imagine you had $10000, if someone took $100 from you just because you had plenty left, wouldn't you be a bit annoyed?
Haha true, then you lose the a digit, nooo. They can donate it I honestly think microsoft needs the money, they've got plenty already!
I wonder how the plantiffs saw MS's source code so that they could begin a suit. I am thinking about patenting various forms of frivilous lawsuits and copywriting excessive awards.