SillyDog701 Message Centre

[Antony]

We all know that Microsoft has a huge team of lawyers. But Microsoft can't even win a Chemistry student in Kent State University.

The quick version of the story:
David Zamos (student) bought a copy of Windows XP Pro and Office XP Pro through educational discount. He decided he no longer need those, but he could not get a refund from the place he bought. So he sold those on eBay and made some profit.

Microsoft said: "Microsoft has suffered and will continue to suffer substantial and irreparable damage to its business reputation and goodwill as well as losses in an amount not yet ascertained," it said. "Defendant's acts of copyright infringement have caused Microsoft irreparable injury."

Zamos lobbed a large number of charges at Microsoft - most notably that the company made it tough to return software. "Microsoft purposely established and maintained a sales and distribution system whereby rightful rejection and return of merchandise that is substantially non-conforming is either impossible or practically impossible due to the ineptness of its employees, unconscionable policies malicious intent and deceptive practices," he wrote in the countersuit.

Microsoft dropped the case against Zamos. Zamos is under a non-disclosure agreement at the moment. However, it is believed that Zamos have the upper-hand against Microsoft.

For detail of the story... Chem student tames Microsoft's legal eagles (TheRegister)

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MozInfo701 | MacCentre701 | AntBlog701 | don't steal music.

[Antony]

From Chem student tames Microsoft's legal eagles (TheRegister):
Word of Zamos's battle eventually reached the main Ohio papers, and that's when Microsoft got scared. It offered to drop its suit against Zamos, if he would drop his suit against Microsoft. No luck. Zamos wanted an apology and payback for printing out legal documents at Kinkos, and Microsoft wasn't willing to do either.

I would like to suggest all SillyDog701 members not to settle down anything that's not reasonable, this includes complaining (or perhaps arguing) with any companies' customer's service. As for strong worded letters from lawyers, the first thing to do is to verify if those letters are real, then you may write a strong worded letter to threaten the lawyer back (but consult with your solicitor or lawyer first, as you don't want the letter be used against you.)

Also, SillyDog701 won't forget the Mike Rowe case, Microsoft threatened a then 17-year-old boy Mike Rowe over mikerowesoft.com domain. Microsoft was later apologised, thanks to the bad publicity generated over internet community.

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MozInfo701 | MacCentre701 | AntBlog701 | don't steal music.