DOJ Calls EU Microsoft Decision "Unfortunate"

ogma writes "This one is especially ironic after the recent slashdot story on more of Microsoft's underhanded actions coming to light. It seems that the DOJ thinks Europe was too hard on Microsoft in its anti-trust ruling.. According to Assistant Attorney General Hewitt Pate, the fine 'may send the wrong message about antitrust enforcement priorities'..." Open Council writes "The Register points out that the EU has provided Microsoft with a major victory over its Open Source rivals because it will now be allowed to pursue royalty revenue from the APIs it publishes. Jeremy Allison says that the projects such as Samba, which he jointly leads, may face a prohibitive hurdle. The size of the fine is peanuts to MS but will be a bargain if it can lock out Open Source projects from using its API's."

Comments

Meanwhile, back in Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

Bill Gates revealed his awesome new creation... the Death Star. "It's capable of destroying entire continents, as we'll soon demonstrate." he was quoted as saying.

Re:Meanwhile, back in Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft programs are generally bug-free. If you visit the Microsoft hotline, you'll literally have to wait weeks if not months until someone calls in with a bug in one of our programs. 99.99% of calls turn out to be user mistakes. I know not a single less irrelevant reason for an update than bugfixes. The reasons for updates are to present more new features. -- Bill Gates, on code stability, from Focus Magazine

Re:Meanwhile, back in Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

99.99% of calls turn out to be user mistakes.

Naturally, installing "Windows" was the first user mistake.

Re:Meanwhile, back in Redmond

[Channard]

Bill Gates revealed his awesome new creation... the Death Star. "It's capable of destroying entire continents, as we'll soon demonstrate." he was quoted as saying.

To which the European Comissioner replied.. 'Puny Gates! You and your 'death star' shall soon face the wrath of EUnicron.'

Re:Meanwhile, back in Redmond

[spellraiser]

this_ruling = null

No, no, no ... what are you thinking of ?? Microsoft programmers using Java ?? I think you must mean:

this_ruling = NULL

Re:Meanwhile, back in Redmond

[Bull999999]

If Bill said it, it must be true.

Re:Meanwhile, back in Redmond

[mangu]

the remaining 0,01% just called to ask how they can rename multiple files...

It's a two step process:

1) Install Linux

2) for i in *.jpeg; do mv $i `echo $i | sed s/\.jpeg/.jpg/ - ` ; done

Let us welcome....

[sheapshearer]

Let us welcome our new world overlord, Bill Gates.

Capital punishment will become the "blue screen of death"

Remember: That's Department of "Justice"

[burgburgburg]

"It's deeply unfortunate that the EU is ignoring our lead of playfully mock-slapping Microsoft on the wrist to try to placate the unwashed masses and have instead chosen to not only fine them a whole days worth of dessert money but more importantly, create a legal precedent that could be invoked for fines that might actually hurt. It is my responsibility to announce that the ministers and employees of the EU are now considered to be enemy combatants. Special Forces Units are en route to collect and process them at sunny Guantanamo Bay."

Re:Not peanuts

[Open Council]

if their past record is anything to go by, MS will just run off a million MS Office CD's at a few cents each and "donate" then to EU schools, saying that their retail value more than covers the fine..

then they will claim the full retail value of the CDs against US tax...

Re:I still think MS

[colinleroy]

Now that would be great. I'm tired of seeing sooo much Visual* and MS* shit in jobs descriptions when I look for one. I'd really like if Europe was 100% Unixes :)

Re:Too hard?

[Anonymous Coward]

" Yes, it's just that they don't have it "in the bank." "

That would be your guess, and that guess would be wrong.

Microsoft could raise $600M in one phone call in one hour.

They're so liquid, Neptune goes to them for advice.

They have so much money, Scrooge McDuck is jealous.

You have no idea how wealthy MS is. You think its a bunch of little VB coders sitting in their cubes trying to code the next release of Windows.

I assure you, Microsoft knows how to make money like its never been made before.

The Cosa Nostra calls them for advice on how to make money.

HEADLINE:

[pergamon]

"Slashdot calls DOJ Microsoft Decision Unfortunate"

Re:I still think MS

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

Indeed, MS products have a superior number of bugs, a superior rate of crashes per unit of time and a superior use of HD space.

Re:Too hard?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

The Cosa Nostra calls them for advice on how to make money.

o/~ Woke up this morning, got myself a gun o/~

"Bill, it's Tony. Listen, I got a problem."

"You got a problem, huh? What problem?"

"I'm not pulling in the dough like I used to, Bill. My guys -- they're not bringing it in any more, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, so what the fuck do you want me to do about it, Tony?"

"Just thought you could maybe give me some advice, is all. You and Steve, I respect you guys. You always have some scam going. How do you do it?"

"You think I'm going to tell you that, Tony? How I do it? Fuck you. No, you just keep on doing what I tell you, you got that? And oh yeah, this Mario Monti guy. Sounds like a Wop name. So I want you Wops to take care of him. Take care of him good, you know what I mean, Tony? And do it soon, you got that?"

(quietly) "Um, yes sir, Mr. Gates. Thanks for your time."

To pay for royalties...

[ClubStew]

Here's a thought: try selling software and those royalties wouldn't be so bad.