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Microsoft Admits Japanese Monopoly Battle Hurting Image
News for nerds writes "The head of Microsoft Corp.'s Japan unit, Michael Rawding, acknowledged that the battle with Japanese anti-monopoly authorities over a controversial licensing clause has hurt its corporate image. But he said the company will continue to oppose a Fair Trade Commission ruling ordering Microsoft to retroactively remove the clause from its licensing agreements, as similar investigations in the United States and Europe found it 'lawful and appropriate' according to him, though Longhorn faces another delay. Commission officials are not certain any patents have been violated by Microsoft. But several Japanese electronics makers have complained about suspected patent infringements since December 2000, especially regarding multimedia technologies (VC-9 and H.264/AVC, anyone?). Major Japanese CE companies that are partners with Microsoft include Sony, Toshiba, and Matsushita."
Besides the release of SP2, what has Microsoft done recently to actually boost its image? Hurting the image wouldn't be so bad if they tried to do good things every now and then.
The US and Europe consider MS to be a monopoly. Japan looks like they will come to that conclusion too. How many more countries need to declare them a monopoly before it becomes true?
On Wednesday, Microsoft for the first time divulged specific information about what the Starter Editions will contain. For instance, the bare-bones operating system's screen resolution maxes out at 800-by-600, it lacks support for home networking and shared printers, and only allows three programs to be running simultaneously.
Hmmm, while the cheapo version of windows may have a market, I can think of three different kernels that support a whole GNU world of software running simultaneously, for much less money. Of course getting a networked printer to work still requires a google search.
On a more serious note, are all the little nasties that windows aquires from the web going to count towards the three processes ?
as similar investigations in the United States and Europe found it 'lawful and appropriate'
Surely he realizes that that doesn't matter, since United States and European laws and rulings do not apply in countries other than the U.S. and the European Union, respectively.
I find your position interesting. Could you elaborate on their history of defensive use of patents?
All my previous sigs now look like this one, I wish they were permanetly recorded when used.
One in recent memory was the Sun case.
.Net that they have patened.
Sun sued Microsoft for its use of their corrupted non-Sun JVM. Then Microsoft counter-sued Sun for technologies in Java that are patented by Microsoft.
Of course then Sun counter-counter-sued for technologies in
They end dup reaching a settlement where Microsoft paid out some money and now they both get free unlimited use of each-other's patent portfolio.
While I could go into a long tirade of how this works, Japan is generally considered more self-centric when it comes to businessand as a rule, if the Japanese company feels threatened (and it has reason to feel so - no FUD allowed), the Japanese courts will deal harshly with it. If you have ever read Michael Chricton's Land of the Rising SUn, it goes into a surprising amount of depth (albeit with alot of fictional twsits).
At the bottom of the document it says "Copyright (C) yada, yada, yada All Rights Reserved"
"All rights reserved" is a notice used to claim rights under the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty between the U.S. and most South American countries. I don't think Japan is a member of the BA Convention, but even if it was, they're still using a notice that has no meaning, since Japan - like the U.S. - is a member of the Berne Convention and so is every other country that is a member of the Buenos Aires Convention. In short, the additional notice is totally superfluous and has been since 1988!
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
I'm not sure where your "understanding" comes from, nor why this is modded "Insightful", but I suggest you read Dogs and Demons to get a more complete understanding of Japan's situation. It was assigned reading for a n English class I took in Japan, assigned by a native Japanese teacher. While you won't benefit from my teacher's ability to fill in holes with other tragic incidents inflicted upon the area of Japan he calls home, I believe it provides a cursory understanding of some of the problems that plague Japan's bureaucratic system.
One of the main points of the book is the absolutely disgusting interaction of Japan's goverment and corporations. Try googling "amakudari" (lit. "descent from heaven"), and see if you still feel the same way.