Re: [tlug] PC vendors.

["SN_Diamond" <Norman.Diamond@example.com>]

"Erwan Loisant" <loisant@example.com> wrote:

> I have a legal question,

The first thing you need to know is that laws don't mean much in Japan.
Bureaucratic rules have far more force.  When a law happens to serve a
bureaucrat's needs then the bureaucrat will be perfectly willing to use the
law, but otherwise the bureaucrat ignores the law.  Also 99% of the time
judges are subservient to bureaucrats.  On rare occasions when a judge
upholds a law, it's newsworthy.

The second thing you need to know is that money often speaks louder than any
other inclinations a bureaucrat might have, the same as in many other
countries.  The third thing you need to know is that Microsoft has a lot of
money.

Japan has some antitrust laws and has occasionally applied them against
makers of electronic equipment other than computers.  I don't know if anyone
knows why the laws were applied in such cases.  But it's pretty obvious why
they haven't been applied in cases involving computers.

> In France, it is hard to buy a blank machine from famous PC manufacturers
> (DELL, Compaq...), usually you must buy ms windows with.

Same here.  If you demonstrate your disagreement with Microsoft's assertion
of a licence agreement, and if you demand a refund for Microsoft's OS, then
the maker demands that you return the machine along with the OS.

Some stores make no-brand machines without tying OSes.  I've never seen this
option on famous brand machines though.

> However, forcing to
> sell a product with an other is illegal in France.
> I would like to know if the law in Japan is the same,

I think it is, but the law doesn't matter here.

> and if it is easy to  buy a blank PC from these companies and
> especially from DELL which is the leader.

According to newspaper reports a few months ago, even in the US, which used
to enforce some antitrust laws, Dell stopped offering machines with Linux.