Microsoft paid $10m directly to the top official of the CCIA

[Matthias Kirschner]

Hi all,
take a look at this; Microsoft bought the CCIA out of the antitrust case
between Microsoft and the European Commission, where FSFE represents the
SAMBA team and both together support the Commission [1].

As Financial Times [2] and The Register [3] reported, they paid almost
$10m directly to the top official of the Computer and Communications
Industry Association (CCIA) as part of its settlement with the trade
group.  

The last paragraph [3]:

  In a statement at the time, which makes more sense now, Ed Black said:
  "Life is a constant reordering of priorities, and for important and
  pragmatic reasons we are choosing to move on with regard to this matter.
  Neither I, nor CCIA, can recant the many things we have said and filed
  relating to Microsoft. Although we know and value the important role we
  have played on this matter over the years, there are other current and
  emerging matters which demand our attention." 

If we were ever in the position of actually having $10m available for
legal cases, we would not have to lose sleep about how to finance our
lawsuits in defence of Free Software anymore. In fact, had Novell just
given 1% of the extra they received because of our involvement, we would
already be fine.

Unfortunately it seems you are only paid for _not_ doing things.

Best wishes,
Matze

[1] http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/
[2] http://news.ft.com/cms/s/92c6495a-3dbd-11d9-abe0-00000e2511c8.html
[3] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/24/microsoft_makes_millionaire/
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