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It seems the “nice” Canadians aren’t being so nice when it comes to Microsoft’s perceived monopoly in the marketplace.

A B.C. Provincial Supreme Court judge has approved a lawsuit to be classified as class action against Microsoft Canada that alleges anti-competitive practices and could seek more than $1 billion in damages.

The plaintiffs, Pro-Sys Consultants, are launching the lawsuit – mimicking that of many similar cases in the U.S.A – claiming that the Redmond giant started its unfair practices in the 80’s when it began setting up computers with its own OS to dominate the market and drive competitors out of business. They argue that once it had little competition, Microsoft raised licensing fees, forcing users to pay more due to the artificially inflated price.

The initial scope of the suit will only include B.C residents who purchased a license for Microsoft operating systems or bought a computer with a Microsoft OS pre-installed since January 1994, however the plaintiff’s may work with lawyers in other provinces to seek approval in their courts.

Spire has been slowly making in-roads for the PC accessories market. With their initial success it is not surprising to witness their next generation of cooling solutions. Let the Eclipse begin.

Coated in a beautiful dark nickel finish and sporting twin BlackStar fans the Eclipse is sure to shine in any case with a windowed panel. Looks aside it has a winning combination of features that should really give the long reigning CPU Coolers something to sweat about.

Five 8mm heatpipes come into direct contact with the CPU giving more than enough transfer area to wick heat away. Coupled to these heatpipes are 46 individual aluminum fins to aid in the heat transfer. Notable as well is how tightly packed the sides of these fins are on the leading edges. This should almost act like a shroud in directing the airflow through the cooler and not losing airflow through its sides. Of course one needs higher powered fans to usually do that, something the Eclipse looks to feature.  Both BlackStar fans bear unique resemblance to something Coolermaster offers, and if this is the case this cooler has a lot of potential to shine.

Compatibility is just as important in this day and age, and as such the TherMax Eclipse comes ready. Intel Support is everything 775 and onwards, while AMD is 939 and up. This should give builders past and present something to look forward to when it hits store shelves.

Availability is slated for this month with an MSRP of 52.99USD.