Decision due in Microsoft-EU row

[Legal Beagles]

Yahoo 'to reject Microsoft offer'

Yahoo's board is reported to be planning to reject Microsoft's unsolicited offer as being too low.

More...

[Legal Beagles]

Yahoo will reject Microsoft's £22bn bid and say it undervalues the company

Yahoo is set to rebuff Microsoft's £22.4bn takeover bid for the search engine today and say it "massively undervalues" the company.


More...

[Legal Beagles]

Yahoo 'Reject' Microsoft Offer Says Wall Street Journal

Yahoo's board is expected to reject Microsoft's $45bn dollar bid for the company - and tell the computer giant to up its offer or walk away.

More...

[Legal Beagles]

Yahoo rejects Microsoft approach

Yahoo rejects a $44.6bn takeover bid from computer software giant Microsoft saying it is too low.

More...

[Legal Beagles]

Yahoo! Rejects Microsoft Offer

Yahoo's board has rejected Microsoft's $45bn dollar bid for the company, saying it is too low.

More...

[Legal Beagles]

Microsoft agrees Danger purchase

Microsoft agrees to buy Danger Inc, maker of the T-Mobile's SideKick web phone popularised by Paris Hilton.

Click here to read more...

[Legal Beagles]

Microsoft investors rap Yahoo bid

Microsoft's $42BN bid for Yahoo has come under increased attack from its own investors

More...

[Legal Beagles]

Many software licences 'unfair to consumers'

Leading software companies are routinely forcing computer users to sign up to unfair contracts that are badly worded, full of legal uncertainties and biased towards providers, the National Consumer Council said yesterday.


More...

[Legal Beagles]

Microsoft ratchets up pressure on Yahoo

Microsoft is set to ask Yahoo shareholders to oust the internet pioneer's board if they do not agree to the $45bn (£23bn) takeover offer put on the table three weeks ago.


More...

[Legal Beagles]

Microsoft steps up Yahoo campaign

Microsoft hires a law firm that specialises in proxy battles in a move that suggests it could try to oust the Yahoo board.

More...

[Amethyst]

Re: Many software licences 'unfair to consumers'

Many software licences 'unfair to consumers'

• Print
• Email

Search Search Go
Independent.co.uk Web Bookmark & Share

• Digg It
• del.icio.us
• Facebook
• Stumbleupon

What are these?

Change font size: A | A | A

By David Prosser, Deputy Business Editor
Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Leading software companies are routinely forcing computer users to sign up to unfair contracts that are badly worded, full of legal uncertainties and biased towards providers, the National Consumer Council said yesterday.
The NCC said that software purchasers, who were forced to accept the licences during the installation process, were being coerced into agreeing to terms that disadvantaged them. "Installation requires the user to agree to non-negotiable terms set out in a licence agreement," an NCC report into software licensing said. "These agreements are more like legal mandates than consumer options, raising concerns about the extent to which they favour the producer over the consumer."
The report is based on a study of 25 products from most of the biggest companies, including Microsoft, Adobe and McAfee.
The consumer group's concerns include complaints that licence agreements are often full of legal jargon that customers have little chance of deciphering, that providers are entitled to terminate contracts with no notice, and that liability exclusions are excessive.
The report urged the Office of Fair Tradingto scrutinise the software industry, focusing on the licensing agreements.
The NCC wants the European Union's Consumer Sales and Sales Guarantees Directive, which excludes software and digital content, to be amended.
"Plugging the gaps in consumer legislation is a vital move – consumers can't have a clue what they're signing up to when some terms and conditions run to 10 or more pages," said Carl Belgrove, the NCC's senior policy advocate. "There's a significant imbalance between the rights of the consumer and the rights of the holder."
Mr Belgrove pointed out that since the licences were electronic, and often only available in full online, consumers could not review their terms before they bought the software.
In more than half the cases studied by the NCC, the software's packaging did not make it clear that the purchaser would have to agree to a licence in order to install it.

[Legal Beagles]

Microsoft set to open up software

Microsoft is to open up the technology of some of its top software to make it easier to operate with rivals' products.

More...

[Legal Beagles]

Microsoft 'opens up' its products but Brussels remains sceptical

Microsoft, the American software giant, failed yesterday to head off a major confrontation with the Euro-pean Commission despite unveiling a shift in policy it claimed would bring it fully into line with European Union laws.


More...

[Legal Beagles]

Microsoft must pay $1.4bn to EU

The European Union fines Microsoft for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour.

More...

[Legal Beagles]

EU fines Microsoft record €899m

The European Commission fined Microsoft a record €899m (£680.9m) today for defying sanctions imposed on the software giant for anti-trust violations, far exceeding the original penalty.


More...