Fold/Spindle/Mutilate 2.1

August 27, 2003: 5:15 PM EDT
By Mark Gongloff, CNN/Money Staff Writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Congressional analysts say the federal budget deficit will soar to record levels in coming years, but some analysts said Wednesday they’re probably being too optimistic — deficits could be much worse than expected.

The complete CNN Report

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re “Tobacco, auto companies in awe of software EULAs
From Dana Paxson, Rochester, N.Y..

First, I’m no lawyer, so turn this off when it starts sounding too hip-hop. But re “Tobacco, auto companies in awe of software EULAs”: There’s a little thing in the law called a “contract of adhesion”. A contract of adhesion is a contract that offers the first party to the contract no way to negotiate contract terms with the second party. Ordinarily someone facing such a problem is free to seek alternative relief for the need addressed by the contract’s terms, but in some situations there is no acceptable alternative. The lack of alternatives enables the second party to set any terms they like, and the first party is helpless to get them changed. Where a software user confronts the EULA for a software package having no acceptable alternatives, the EULA for that package is a contract of adhesion. Here the only alternative to agreeing to the EULA is not to be able to work. Can you say Microsoft?

Guess what the law says about contracts of adhesion. At http://dictionary.law.com/:

(Read the article)

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“Wild and overblown”; a “diversionary tactic”; “ridiculous.” That’s how Oracle is attempting to explain away internal company e-mails, distributed by PeopleSoft Tuesday, that suggest its hostile takeover bid for PeopleSoft is really a planned assault on the company’s business. “We’ve certainly wounded (PeopleSoft),” an unnamed Oracle employee involved in the takeover attempt stated in an e-mail. “Even if we don’t end up closing the deal, this is going to take (PeopleSoft) time to recover. And, of course, our corporate image of being aggressive, brash, and marching to the tune of a different drummer has been reinforced.” PeopleSoft claims this message, originally filed under seal in Alameda County Superior Court, proves Oracle only launched its bid to disrupt its business. Hard to argue with such claims, but Oracle did its best. “[PeopleSoft's lawsuit] is rife with comments taken out of context,” Oracle spokesman Jim Finn said in a statement. “Oracle has nothing to hide in its legitimate effort to acquire PeopleSoft. We are confident that we will successfully defend against the action and we are unwavering in our commitment to acquire PeopleSoft.”

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Microsoft and The SCO Group may be taking aim at Linux, but they are also relying on the open-source operating system to keep their Web sites up.

On Aug. 17, Microsoft contracted Akamai to cache its Web pages on that service provider’s network in order to mitigate the effects of an MSBlast denial-of-service attack. The Akamai network, which runs on Linux, distributes Web page requests among a large number of servers, allowing Web sites to get around the attacks.

Microsoft’s Web site itself isn’t running on Linux, but it is tapping the operating system in its use of Akamai, Internet measurement firm Netcraft said.

On the other hand, SCO’s Web site apparently does run on Linux, according to Netcraft’s database, which indicates that its site is hosted by an Apache Web server on Linux. It seems that the company moved its site to the open-source operating system a year ago, before it changed its name from “Caldera International” to “The SCO Group” and entered the business of suing Linux rather than selling it.
[August 27, 2003] CNET News.com.

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Burst suit could force Microsoft to monopolize video streaming: Another one of Microsoft’s legal battles went back to court Tuesday, and this one isn’t looking good for the folks in Redmond. The case pits Microsoft against streaming audio venture Burst.com, which in 2002 accused Microsoft of out and out theft of its technology. Microsoft “stole” video-streaming technology shared with the company under nondisclosure agreements, says Burst, brazenly incorporated it into its Windows Media Player, and then made sure that the player didn’t support Burst’s plug-in. At the same time, the company attempted to prevent Burst from entering the market by discouraging Intel and RealNetworks from working with it. Sound familiar?

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