Judge tosses out Windows XP downgrade lawsuit
updated 04:10 pm EST, Mon March 1, 2010
Windows XP downgrade lawsuit thrown out
A lawsuit that dates back to February 2009 against Microsoft has been dismissed by a federal judge last week. Filed by Emma Alvarado, the case alleged that the software giant forced PC makers to have customers buy Windows Vista or Windows 7 before being able to downgrade to Windows XP. Judge Marsha Pechman dismissed the case on the grounds that the complaint failed to prove that Microsoft benefited from the downgrade practices it created.
Pechman said Alvarado did not allege she paid for a downgrade and even got two versions of the operating system for the price of one. Alvarado claimed she paid $59.25 in 2008 to downgrade her new Lenovo notebook to XP from Vista. Contrary to her arguments, Microsoft does not charge or get additional royalties from buyers' choices to downgrade.
It's the PC makers that charge fees for downgrading at the factory, and Alvarado did not name Lenovo in her lawsuit.
Microsoft has offered downgrades to business users in the past, but it decided to extend that to many more users after many PC buyers began actively avoiding Vista in favor of XP. [via ComputerWorld]
