The Register takes a walk down memory lane, as it reminisces about Microsoft’s current and past pricing strategies. They also talk about one of the most interesting snippets of information to emerge from the antitrust trial so far; the fact that Microsoft bumped up the price of Windows 95 when the Windows 98 release was imminent, in order to prod OEMs into moving to Windows 98 as soon as possible. This smoking gun provides pretty solid evidence that Microsoft’s pricing stragegies are not dictated in any way whatsoever by competition, no matter what they say about Linux over the coming weeks.
More on the Microsoft case: apparently, the judge isn’t having much trouble figuring out that Microsoft’s chief hired gun, Richard Schmalensee (who’s been on the Microsoft payroll since 1992, even though he’s an MIT professor of economics), is making intellectually dishonest arguments.
Here’s a link to a better story about the goings on in the Microsoft trial yesterday. It explains more clearly the problems with Schmalensee’s testimony.
In case you were wondering, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown has absolutely no sense of humor.
Press releases are lame, fortunately, Wired News has posted a story about the Eldritch Press lawsuit which challenges the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. This is an important lawsuit, and I hope the act is overturned.