Slashdot Mirror
EU May Fine Microsoft
Yokaze writes: "The Wall Street Journal reports about a leaked European Comission document, that suggests that the EU may fine MS for anti-competitive behaviour. The fine can be up to 10% of the annual revenue, or $2.5 billion and may include the demand to remove certain programs from Windows.
The report harshly criticized MS way of taking influence in the case, even speaking of trying to mislead the observers.
Regarding the report of the WSJ, European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said, that the case is still at a preliminary stage, since MS still has the right to defend itself at a hearing. Or in his own words: 'To speak of a fine when Microsoft has not yet disputed the Commission's preliminary findings both in fact and law -- as it it's right -- is premature.' Since the original is for subscribers only, take a look at Yahoo or the more detailed report from BBC News. Lastly with some different details a report from Heise in German."
The Heise article is quite good, I'll translate the last paragraph for you:
The commission values Microsoft's presentation of 34 letters of support said to be from their customers as a try to hinder the case. They say many of those letters were written by Microsoft itself and in other cases the companies in question didn't know their letters would be used as evidence.
I figure MS' tactics department could use some fresh heads...
A World in a Grain of Sand / Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Infinity in the Palm of your Hand / And Eternity in an Hour.
Microsoft does not constitute to our countries as large as it does to the US. Scrambling out the EU is going to hurt MS more than the proposed fine.
And provincial? Myopic? Last time i checked we were not a province of the US nor was Russia (Dmitry's homeland)... Please.. leave your backhoe opinions at home when you try to communicate with others.. get educated..
"EU to fine Microsoft?"
Oh God, dare I say it? Please forgive me, Lord, for the pun I am about to make:
"That would be fine by me."
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
can you explain why you think the idea (let alone the man) is stupid? you call it insanity and compare the idea to pulling money from tobacco to pay for health costs, but I don't exactly see your reasoning why it's a bad idea?
i personally think it's a good idea, and i'll tell you why. if a person does damage to another person or their property, they should be responsible to replace or repair the damages (along with other penalties depending upon the crime). say i go and loot a few houses. along with the jail time i should expect to recieve for that crime, i should also be held accountable for the items i stole. in the same manner, if a corporation has committed a crime against another via it's anti-competitive, they should be reponsible to undo that damage. specifically, it was noted in the microsoft trial that they used anti-competitive practices twords netscape. i think they should have to pay a large sum of money to netscape to get it back into the browser business (mainstream). i also believe that it was pointed out during the trial that MS wouldn't allow OEM's to install alternative operating systems (OS/2, linux, whatever). they should then also kick some cash to some of those os distributors (RedHat, IBM, and others).
and yes, this is slashdot.