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Microsoft's EU Appeal is Ready

Posted by Hemos on from the the-battle-smolders-on dept.

psic writes "According to techworld, Microsoft plans on lodging its official appeal to the European Commission concerning the EC's decision to fine the software giant 497.2 million euros, as well as forcing them to open up part of the code of Windows, "so other products could interoperate with it better". It's taken Microsoft a couple of months, but their appeal is ready. One interesting thing is the fact that an appeal will take at least three years to conclude. But the decision of the EC might just come into effect very soon, regardless of Microsoft's appeal."

18 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Wait a minute... by Mz6 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    OK... I read the article but I don't understand this part. If they were found guilty of abusing their monopoly, why are they required to make a enw version of Windows with it's media player built in? Doesn't it already have it built in? Anyone care to explain?

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    Hmmm.
  2. Dammit! by d_strand · · Score: 3, Interesting

    3 years... sheesh, those administrators sure knows how to work effectively.

    Isn't there a chance that the appeal will be summarily (sp?) turned down? I thought that an appeal for a new trial was only granted when there was new evidence available?

    (I just submitted this like 1 minute before it was on the frontpage... sigh.. if only once I'd get a story accepted :-)

    1. Re:Dammit! by Kegster · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nah, you can also appeal on stuff like points of law, or excessive damages, usually.

      I don't think any legal system that isn't institutionally corrupt is particularly swift when it comes to appeals and stuff.

      Bleak House isn't entirely fiction you know.

      "The Wheels of Justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly small" ;)

  3. Interest by rubicon7 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Assuming 1) it takes three years for the appeal process to be completed, and 2) Microsoft will not pay the fine until they *lose* the appeal, will they also be liable for the interest on the money? Its not an insignificant amount...

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    --- We are not in the 8th dimension. We are over New Jersey.
  4. Lawsuits in 3 years? by Jad+LaFields · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If the ruling goes into effect before the appeal is concluded, and if Microsoft wins with the appeal, will we be seeing Microsoft suing the EU for revenues lost during that time? I can see them borrowing the RIAA's calculator and racking up a very high bill for the EU...

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    [SIG] It's like putting a moose in the blender -- a recipe for disaster!
  5. With appeals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting


    punishments can go up as well as down, its possible a judge can rule that the previous courts punishment wasn't harsh enough

    Both Microsoft and Apple have a huge number of lawsuits to deal with this year (thats even affecting stock/futures), do you think the entire industry has legal problems or is it a trait specific to American companies ?

  6. What if microsoft wins? by Barsema · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What happens if Microsoft loses its request to suspend the remedies, so is forced to pay the fine and open up parts of Window's and subsequently wins the apeal?

    OK, the EU can repay the fine (with intrest) but once the code is open it stays open.

  7. Even if they lose... by the_rajah · · Score: 4, Interesting

    it's a drop in the bucket compared to their $60 Billion in cash. It is just a simple "cost of doing business" for them. Not that I wouldn't be surprized if they rolled over on this without and appeal, but think about it.

    "Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

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    "Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
    1. Re:Even if they lose... by jimicus · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You missed the point. The 497 million euro fine isn't supposed to achieve much. Being forced to open their APIs and standards is the kicker.

      Samba, for instance, could go from being a pretty good if not always complete implementation of SMB to a complete drop-in replacement very quickly indeed. Developing a complete replacement for Exchange which can interoperate with an existing Exchange setup becomes much more faesible.

    2. Re:Even if they lose... by michael_cain · · Score: 4, Interesting
      it's a drop in the bucket compared to their $60 Billion in cash. It is just a simple "cost of doing business" for them.

      It's not the fine that's the big deal in this case, it's the requirement that they build and sell a version of Windows without Media Player bundled and/or integrated. Assuming that it stands up on appeal, it sets a precedent that MS cannot arbitrarily bundle and/or integrate what were applications "into" the OS. And that they have to reveal the APIs so that other firms can develop components that can be used in place of the MS ones.

  8. Windows code by Nicholas+Evans · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The story says they need to open up some code for all us little people. I can't wait for the EU to sue them again over the license they'll put the code under...

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    The Yasashii Syndicate ||
  9. 600 million dollars by Prince+Vegeta+SSJ4 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    well about 612.7, but anyway is this part of the judgment enough for M$ to care about other than how it looks in the press?

    Looking at the current stock price of 26.13 we calculate the number of outstranding shares at about 10,792,192,882.

    The last dividend payment was 0.16 a share, which would come in a total of $1,726,750,861.08 , so they cut the dividend by a third for one quarter - big deal.

    I guess what they really care about is having to open up their source, with all of the recent exploits, one can only imagine what will happen if the source is public knowledge (a whole new can of worms - ba da bing). It could be a public relations fiasco, especially if it comes to light that there are many exploits that are or should have been known by MS.

  10. my knee jerk response by zogger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I honestly don't think MS is as much interested in the fines (although it is a significant sum) as in the public blackeye from the ruling, and being forced to reveal source code. I would guess they have something to hide in the source code, as in "stolen" code, and perhaps quite a few "bits" of it. I also think this applies to a slew of closed source softwares.

    Whatsay any AC closed source developers? Is theft of open source rampant?

  11. Their deal with Sun could hurt their arguments by ChrisRijk · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Microsoft's Sun Accord May Hurt It in Dispute With EU
    Competition Commissioner Mario Monti on March 24 said forcing the Redmond, Washington-based company to disclose the inner workings of the software that powers more than 90 percent of personal computers was necessary to ensure it doesn't exploit its monopoly. Microsoft argued the ruling will cause ``irreparable harm.'' The following week, it agreed to license technology when it settled its decade-long dispute with Sun.

    ``One could be forgiven for wondering whether this agreement and the huge payment to Sun were really needed, given that Microsoft has consistently stated there is no interoperability shortcoming beyond natural technological barriers,'' Lafitte said.

  12. Re:parking meter money by Daengbo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The really good news with this is that, because Longhorn is so delayed, XP will actually still be the flagship product when they are forced to comply with the order. That rarely happens in MS cases like this.

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    Put identity in the browser.
  13. MS is really defending Palladium by quadra23 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    they were required to make a "new" version of Windows without the media player

    That and a few other monopoly-related restrictions that Microsoft has implemented

    As far as I can tell the whole appeal process is Microsoft's way of defending their Palladium (aka "secure computing") system from "competitors". If they are forced to support software that doesn't run as Microsoft bids then they can deny it from installing. Sure the technology will take several years before it actually comes out, but MS would prefer to have complete control over Windows.

    If you are forced to use Windows Media player you are forced to play by their rules. If you can use another media player on your computer than it would depend if that vendor used the same code protection as MS -- which they know no sane vendor who isn't MS-friendly would support. They could use this to sell you all kinds of access just because they would control the media player market.

    I can tell you one thing, if I was a monopoly and I had control over a platform this big, I'd be tempted to contain it the same way that Microsoft is trying to. I'm really hoping that the EC wins because Microsoft needs some real legal competition to keep their monopoly in line.

  14. Re:parking meter money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You are assuming that the money even means anything to MS: it doesn't. It's the OTHER stuff that matters to Microsoft. The reason they adopted these practices in the first place was so that they could contiue to do the things the "opening parts of windows" section was meant to break.

  15. Here, almost no one uses WMP already. by incal · · Score: 2, Interesting

    AFAIK, in central Europe (Germany, Poland, Czech) most people use other players (often BSPlayer combined with some kind of combo codec pack like KazaLite), due to inability of WMP to display subtitles in viewed movies. Even technically inept users know what divX movies are, and pc-based home-theater systems are quite common here.

    I suppose its true for other countries too, but have immediate knowledge only for these places (I lived there)

    Player without good subtitles handling is almost useless to non-anglophone people: read most folks on this globe.

    So if you wish to beat WMP, you need something which will give functionality unknown before. like Mozilla, which become popular here very quickly. (finally, even in my conservative University, library turned its machines to Mozilla 1.6)