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Notebook Antitrust Probe Opened
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| The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said Wednesday that it had opened a case
| against six major notebook producers, following consumers' complaints that
| they were being forced to buy Microsoft's Windows operating system along with
| new computers.
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http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/600/42/378477.htm
Related:
Breaking the Camel’s Back
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| Major OEM makes notebooks and preloads them with Windows, but does NOT
| activate them. The notebook has one price and a sealed envelope with the OEM
| Windows Key Sticker, backup CDs, etc. has a different price.
|
| If the user wants to buy Windows for the notebook, they just pay the extra $
| for the envelope too and when they first bootup the machine they enter the
| code and affix the sticker as per the EULA.
|
| Oh wait, what’s that other stack of disks next to the Windows envelopes?
| Ubuntu Linux disks? What’s that you say; they’re FREE? And Ubuntu can do
| pretty much everything Windows can and a few things it can’t? And if I don’t
| like it I can come back next week and still buy the OEM Windows disks? Hmm…
`----
http://limulus.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/breaking-the-camels-back/
Windows Price Ruling Not Enough, Says French Consumer Group
,----[ Quote ]
| A French electronics retailer must display separately the price of computers
| and of the software bundled with them, a Paris court ruled Tuesday. It
| stopped short of ordering the retailer to sell computers without bundled
| operating system software, however.
|
| [...]
|
| The ruling will give little comfort to those wanting to buy a PC on which to
| run Linux: they will still have to pay for Windows, although they will at
| least know exactly how much they had to pay for it.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147547/windows_price_ruling_not_enough_says_french_consumer_group.html
French court orders Windows refund
,----[ Quote ]
| In France, it is illegal to bundle software and to refuse to reimburse the
| customer for unwanted licences, under Article L.122-1 of the French Consumer
| Code. The Tribunal de Grande Instance ruled that offering an expensive refund
| option was tantamount to offering no refund option at all, hence finding for
| the consumer and requiring that Asus stump up.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/19/french-court-nobbles-asus
French police deal blow to Microsoft
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| The French paramilitary police force said Wednesday it is ditching Microsoft
| for the free Linux operating system, becoming one of the biggest
| administrations in the world to make the break.
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iU4Lq7tOR_WVOJLZ3IeRaIH03x6w
French consumer protectionists are demanding PCs without preinstalled
software
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| The consumer protectionists of the French organization UFC-Que Choisir
| are demanding of the IT group Hewlett-Packard and the vendors Auchan
| and Darty that they offer PCs without preinstalled software.
|
| [...]
|
| UFC-Que Choisir last year also took action against Sony and Apple,
| taking the two companies to court for allegedly putting their
| customers at a disadvantage through proprietary DRM technologies
| and curtailing their choice of devices.
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http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82605/from/rss09
French consumer group attacks PC software bundling
,----[ Quote ]
| UFC-Que Choisir legal officer Sandra Wouhling said current
| practice effectively forced ordinary consumers to buy computers
| using Microsoft operating systems whereas companies anda
| dministrations were offered a real choice.
`----
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20061214:MTFH94365_2006-12-14_14-49-22_L14537403&type=comktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/yf7kfu
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