[nzlug] 'MS Tax' versus Commerce Commission

[David McNab]

Hi all,

I received a phone call from the Commerce Commission earlier today,
responding to my earlier enquiry about what we 'endearingly' (not) refer
to as the 'Microsoft Tax'.

The ComCom guy advised me that there are several sections of the
Commerce Act and other legislation where the MS Tax could be in breach,
depending on how it is effected.

For example, if OEM licenses are sold for below cost price, that is
clearly in breach. Similarly, if MS tells any hardware vendor not to
sell any Windows-less boxen or else they'll cut off supply, that is also
in breach.

The possibility of MS offering an OEM license discount in return for not
supplying Windows-less boxen, according to ComCom, is a grey area but
one that could still be investigated under anti-competitive provisions.

What ComCom makes clear (and this is to be expected) is that they would
require fairly good evidence of shady practices taking place before they
would allocate resources to investigate. Such evidence could come, for
example, as testimonials/affadavits from current or former insiders to
MS or hardware vendors.

But wherever ComCom stands on the issue, the problem remains - it's damn
near impossible to buy a computer, especially a laptop, for the purposes
of running Linux without paying a portion of the price to Microsoft, for
software that one will never use.

In comparison, many of us would not like it if we could not purchase a
stereo without $100 worth of CDs of the Spice Girls, Crazy Frog, Vanilla
Ice etc being tacked on to the price tag.

Cheers
David

P.S. It's not beyond sanity to envisage an organised campaign of Linux
enthusiasts ringing the big hardware vendors and asking for hardware
without MS Tax, especially when we're actually ready to pay for new
hardware.