Ms vs norweigan edu
From Osnow
From: http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/16/2330251
Microsoft Bends To Norwegian Pressure Posted by kdawson on Sunday June 17, @04:23AM
Martin writes "Microsoft has agreed to change the terms of its school agreement contract with Norwegian regional municipalities, following a complaint by Norwegian open-source software company Linpro to the Norwegian Competition Authority. Microsoft 'introduced two kinds of flexibility in the agreement, that were previously missing,' the head of the company's Norway operations said. One of these 'kinds of flexibility' involved Microsoft not getting paid a license fee for each Linux and Mac computer in schools."
http://www.linpro.no/en/nyheter_og_events/2007/linpro_vant_frem_mot_microsoft
Schools will no longer be subjected to Windows licensing for Linux or Mac computers. Furthermore, Microsoft has accepted to discontinue their commercial bundling which required schools to buy several Microsoft products to obtain discounts.
Many organizations around the world have challenged Microsoft on their competition-restrictive policy, but very few have succeeded, says Linpro CEO Trond Heier. He hopes that the outcome of this case will foster new behavior from Microsoft as well as from purchasers.
The background for Linpro's complaint was an extensive discount agreement signed by Microsoft and 12 regional municipalities in December 2005. The agreement blocked other providers and solutions, including inexpensive, open source software. Furthermore, schools were licenced by Microsoft for the total number of computers, regardless of the operating system or software used.
Ever heard of the "South Improvement Company"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil [wikipedia.org]
"Smaller companies decried the deals as being unfair because they were not producing enough oil to qualify for discounts. In 1872, Rockefeller joined the South Improvement Company which would have allowed him to receive rebates for shipping oil but also to receive drawbacks on oil his competitors shipped. When word got out of this arrangement, competitors convinced the Pennsylvania Legislature to revoke South Improvement's charter. No oil was ever shipped under this arrangement."
This is a minor modification of Standard Oil's drawback, except it works on your customers as opposed to a company supplying you a service. The basic idea is to use your monopoly power to force another business entity to give you money every time they do business with one of your competitors.
