The Committee to Fight Microsoft (“CTFM”), the first civil rights and consumer action organization in cyberspace, will held a San Francisco news conference yesterday to announce that it has begun a campaign to block Microsoft Corporation from releasing Windows Vista to the general public unless and until Microsoft offers a general and unconditional warranty to purchasers that the program does not include “bad code.”
The Washington, DC-based CTFM celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.
“Bill Gates sells the public defective products,” says CTFM Executive Director Andy Martin, “And then expects us to spend years being his guinea pigs, while he corrects the myriad of defects and vulnerabilities in his defective code. This is mass consumer fraud. It is unacceptable corporate behavior. Over four (4) years after Windows XP was released I still receive regular ‘updates’ and ‘bug fixes,’ which reflect a product that was originally scandalously defective.
“Windows 95 was a disaster; it took three years to correct the major deficiencies. But the 95 fix, Windows 98, only created new vulnerabilities, and required yet another round of fixes for Windows 98. On and on it goes. No other company in America gets away with selling defective products and then expecting its customers to wait years for proper product operability.
“When computers were a tool for techies, bad code may have been understandable. Today computers are a mass consumer product. The idea that hundreds of millions of people should have to have a similar ‘XP’ as users of Windows XP is unacceptable.
“Two other unacceptable scams that Microsoft has used over and over again are to encourage people to ‘upgrade’ unsuitable old computers, and to encourage manufacturers to sell underpowered computers. XP was authorized for 128 RAM, which was clearly inadequate. Who would buy an inadequate TV set? Or an inadequate stove, that didn’t get warm enough? Or an inadequate refrigerator that didn’t get cold enough? No one. Why should someone buy or ‘upgrade’ an inadequate computer on Bill Gates’ say-so? The Committee to Fight Microsoft is launching a legal action effort to bar such practice, in advance, for Windows Vista. Bill Gates, you are on notice.”
Adjunct professor of law Andy Martin created the legal theories that led to litigation by state attorneys general against Microsoft. He founded the CTFM during the second round of federal litigation against Microsoft, and was an opponent of the original 1994 settlement.
Andy Martin has served as founding Executive Director of the Committee to Fight Microsoft since 1995.
Contact info:
Andy Martin of The Committee to Fight Microsoft, 1-866-706-2639, AndyMart20@aol.com
Web site: http://www.andymartin.com/