New Micro$oft trial

[Jerry Feldman]

Microsoft announced that it is selling advertising space in the error
messages that appear in Windows. Acknowledging for the first time
that the average user of their operating system encounters error
messages at least several times a day, Microsoft is trying to take
financial advantage of the unavoidable opportunity to make an ad
impression. "We estimate that throughout the world at any given
moment several million people are getting a 'general protection fault'
or 'illegal operation' warning. We will be able to generate
significant revenue by including a short advertising message along
with it," said Microsoft marketing director Nathan Mirror. 

The Justice Department immediately indicated that they intend to
investigate whether Microsoft is gaining an unfair advantage in
reaching the public with this advertising by virtue of its
semi-monopolistic control over error messages.

--
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
http://www.blu.org

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