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Japanese Government Raids Microsoft Offices

Posted by simoniker on from the giant-robot-jokes-out-of-question dept.

Nakito writes "According to an article at the financial news site Bloomberg, Microsoft's Tokyo office was raided by Japan's Fair Trade Commission, which is investigating whether the world's largest software maker violated the country's anti-monopoly law." Other readers note a AP/Yahoo story claiming: "A commission official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Microsoft Japan is suspected of attaching improper restrictive conditions when signing software deals with Japanese personal computer manufacturers, such as requiring that Japanese companies allow infringement of their patents."

2 of 621 comments (clear)

  1. Re:NEWSFLASH: COMPANY WANTS TO MAKE MONEY!!! by 36526542DD · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually I'm the president of a company that has used open source profitably for over 5 years, and it does pay the bills. Very nicely in fact.

    Thanks goes to the developers of Linux, Apache, MySQL (and other databases), PHP, and others.

    And yes, I want my company to make money, which it does. But there are more important things than that, and there are plenty of profitable companies (open source or otherwise) to prove that money can be made hand over fist without resorting to Microsofts tactics.

  2. from the nikkei shinbun by bandersnatch · · Score: 5, Informative

    Summerizing this Japanese article, the issue is that the OEM contracts contain a clause disallowing the filing of complaints about against Microsoft software. The main part that seems to have rankled is that Microsoft is believed to have improperly included software developed by Japanese manufactures(Fujitsu, NEC, etc). By being forced to agree to the clause in the contract however, they are unable to file a complaint against Microsoft.
    This is where the monopoly bit comes in. Because Microsoft has an OS monopoly the makers have no other choice than to include the OS on their machines, which in order to do so forces them into sign the contract. All of which rubs up against various Japansese antitrust and trade laws.