States drop some charges against Microsoft

["Eric M. Bennett" <ericb@pobox.com>]

The states have dropped their charges relating to Microsoft Office being
licensened on a per-system basis.

http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/msftdoj/TWB19980717S0013

I'm not sure what to make of this.  The official explanation is that the
states want to "focus" on the main issues of the case.  I thought this
*was* a main issue.  I also thought that if the states had any evidence at
all, this would have been a very easy point to win, since Microsoft already
caved in once on this issue (by agreeing not to license Windows on a
per-system basis as part of the consent decree).



--
Eric Bennett (http://www.pobox.com/~ericb/), Cornell Biochemistry Department

Windows 98 is not the first product Microsoft has botched, nor will it be
the last.  But it is the last straw. . . . Users who do install it do so at
their own risk, and IS departments are not offering support.
- Scot Petersen, PC Week Magazine