Microsoft Lawsuits

With curiosity as motivation, I've been following the many and varied lawsuits being adjudicated against Microsoft with no preconceptions about any resultant observations I might have. Obviously, a scorecard was necessary, so I prepared one identifying the litigants, basis of the lawsuit, important dates, summary of status, and details of rulings/settlements. Compiling data was fairly easy at first, but I soon became overwhelmed and realized I needed a spreadsheet, not a scorecard. It seems that every major and minor competitor, along with the federal and state governments, are or have been involved in lawsuits against Microsoft. Throw into the mix the foreign lawsuits, notably Europe and the Far East, that are pending, ongoing, or anticipated and the total number of individual cases became unmanageable for one part-time observer. I literally threw up my hands when I realized the amount of study I was facing.

With that in mind, I decided it would be prudent to distance myself somewhat from the details to preclude becoming obsessive. Analyzing the Microsoft legal quagmire is like analyzing a shooting match, from the design of the shotgun to the trajectory of the skeet. It can be done, but it'll drive a person crazy. Maintaining a generally knowledgeable awareness of the subject seemed to be healthier and, on this basis, I gleaned only one salient observation. It is that Microsoft is Gulliver and every Lilliputian in the Kingdom is trying tie him down and the people benefiting the most are the lawyers.

But I knew that before I started.