Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Allegedly Illegal US Procurement Gets Frozen After Lawsuit

WWI propaganda poster (US version)



Summary: Google's lawsuit against the United States government derails a deal with Microsoft, at least for the time being

YESTERDAY we posted a roundup about Microsoft's back room deals, having explained Microsoft's federal games just days beforehand (there is more to do with taxing). As we showed using new examples, Microsoft prefers playing dirty and relying on cronyism, not technical merit. A few months ago Google sued the government for doing this old tango routine with Microsoft and initially at least Google is victorious. The Register says that "Google suit halts Microsoft fed contract", adding as background that "[l]ate last year, Google sued the Department of the Interior (DOI), claiming it didn't give Google a fair chance to win a contract to provide email and collaboration services for its roughly 88,000 employees, and as Bloomberg reports, a federal judge has now issued a temporary court order preventing the feds from awarding the contract to Microsoft." This is not a unique situation. The same type of thing happened in many other countries and there is an ongoing lawsuit in Switzerland, as the links below help summarise.

  1. Microsoft Sued Over Its Corruption in Switzerland, Microsoft Debt Revisited
  2. Can the United Kingdom and Hungary Still be Sued for Excluding Free Software?
  3. 3 New Counts of Antitrust Violation by Microsoft?
  4. Is Microsoft Breaking the Law in Switzerland Too?
  5. Microsoft Uses Lobbyists to Attack Holland's Migration to Free Software and Sort of Bribes South African Teachers Who Use Windows
  6. ZDNet/eWeek Ruins Peter Judge's Good Article by Attacking Red Hat When Microsoft Does the Crime
  7. Week of Microsoft Government Affairs: a Look Back, a Look Ahead
  8. Lawsuit Against Microsoft/Switzerland Succeeds So Far, More Countries/Companies Should Follow Suit
  9. Latest Reports on Microsoft Bulk Deals Being Blocked in Switzerland, New Zealand
  10. Swiss Government and Federal Computer Weekly: Why the Hostility Towards Free Software?
  11. Switzerland and the UK Under Fire for Perpetual Microsoft Engagements
  12. Lawsuit Over Alleged Microsoft Corruption in Switzerland Escalates to Federal Court
  13. When Microsoft-Only/Lock-in is Defined as “Technology”
  14. Microsoft's Allegedly Illegal Swiss Contracts to Take People to Court Again

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