If you pay $9.95 a month for Microsoft Premium then Microsoft is royally screwing you. It seems that the service, which comes free from some ISPs, offers bunch of web-based services including “Virtual Earth,” Encarta, and spam and phishing filters. These same features are available through Windows Live and Hotmail and, incidentally, available in Windows itself. As a result, folks are paying Microsoft for services that they may not know exist for free — from Microsoft.

Microsoft considers MSN and Live “complimentary services” which means — ummmm — that you should pay for MSN and use Live for free? In short, one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing in Redmond and this isn’t a big scam to cover up a scam. It’s basically one business unit trying to survive on subscriptions while another unit, the Live team, gets subsidized. Dogs eat dogs, I suppose. I mean none of us are using MSN Premium, right? Right?

Microsoft charges customers for free services [WindowsSecrets]