From: Stephen D. Williams (sdw@lig.net)
Date: Fri Jun 09 2000 - 22:16:27 PDT
Dan Kohn wrote:
> "When an OEM removes End-User Access to a Middleware Product from any
> Personal Computer on which Windows is preinstalled, the royalty paid by that
> OEM for that copy of Windows is reduced in an amount not less than the
> product of the otherwise applicable royalty and the ratio of the number of
> amount in bytes of binary code of (a) the Middleware Product as distributed
> separately from a Windows Operating System Product to (b) the applicable
> version of Windows." -- Judgment provision 3(g)ii, from the Department of
> Justice proposal on how to use mass code weights of middleware to judge the
> value of software.
I noted this in my earlier post about the ruling... however I found it funny.
I can just hear what they were thinking: "They can't give us a price so we'll
just estimate worth by code size." Perfectly rational for a non-technical
person. It challenges MS to provide a More rational basis, rather than saying
they can't and assuming that the court couldn't come up with something.
The only more rational method I can see is to do a full audit of all R&D,
development, advertising, legal (!), and other expenditures for the OS and the
middleware in question and using various methods impute product cost, profit,
and retail components for each piece. Needless to say this would cost a
fortune and appropriate records are probably not available.
> - dan
> --
> Daniel Kohn <mailto:dan@dankohn.com>
> tel:+1-425-602-6222
> http://www.dankohn.com
sdw
-- Insta.com - Revolutionary E-Business Communication sdw@insta.com Stephen D. Williams Senior Consultant/Architect http://sdw.st 43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax Jan2000
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