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Microsoft EU Monopoly Appeal Thrown Out
smnicoll writes "The European Court of First Instance has thrown out Microsoft's appeal to have penalties for the abuse of monopoly suspended, reports BBC News Online.
'Microsoft's application for interim measures is therefore dismissed in its entirety,'
The court's statement said. 'The evidence adduced by Microsoft is not sufficient to show that implementation of the remedies imposed by the Commission might cause serious and irreparable damage.' The commission's case is mainly focused on Microsoft's integration of Windows Media Player into the operationg system and the effects that has on the ability of Real Networks and Apple to get their rival players used." Similar stories at Bloomberg, CNET, and Reuters (via CNN).
http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtm
has some of the better comments from the bigwigs at Redmond..
My favourite being:
-if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
Hasn't it been 120 days already, or do they get to start the clock now? (again)
Actaully - I have always found the MS windows media player to be far better that the QuickTime Player, and the virus that is know as RealPlayer. But, hey, that is my opinion.
However, the remedies being upheld is a good thing. This may put a bigger wrench in M$ plans by not only preventing the desktop audio / video market from closing up, but also HDTV and DVDs. M$ has had its eye on all three and the desktop monopoly could have done much more harm if HDTV over IP were to become available only via WMP.
Let's hope this support of the March decision gives open codecs like Vorbis and Dirac a boost all around.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
No sympathy for them at all. They deserve that and more. Weird such a big company with so many people who absolutely hate and despise them. You don't find that many people hating GE.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
It's really hard to come up with a "positive view" of Microsoft, after you get screwed by them. Over and over again. No, they are not a "almost-monopoly". They are a monopoly. That is a fact that has been upheld in a court of law. they are criminals, and I don't want to give my hard-earned money to a bunch of criminals
Why exactly should I have "positive view" about them? They are a monopoly, they use illegal methods to maintain their monopoly. They use their OS-monopoly to gain monopoly in other areas (which is illegal), they charge too much for their crappy, virus-ridden software, they use lies and deceit to undermine competition, they push closed proprietary standards, while trying to squash open standards and they stifle innovation.
Pray tell: what "positive view" should I have? Well, the mice they make are OK, I'll grant you that.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
BTW, if it stands, this is a hit against MS on two major counts: the original ruling required them to open up various information for interoperability purposes, and to produce a version of Windows without Media Player integrated.
I can't help but find part of this a little sad. We've been so completely bullied by MS that we actually believe that the consumer being able to say no to free a "portion of the OS" is a major hit against the software maker.
This is not, in reality, a hit on Microsoft at all. It's just a defensive move on the part of the consumer. It's the difference between us putting on a bullet proof vest or actaully getting a gun and firing back. We have no gun with this ruling.
I understand why we would be happy to put a halt to one or two of the barrage of bullets, but MS is still very much winning. If they can make us jump for joy over such a minor protection then our chances of ever actually getting a level playinf field are slim indeed.
TW
Does this mean that Linux vendors will no longer be able to ship a pre-installed media player? What about Apple Quick Time? Will it have to be removed from OS X?
Or does the "level playing field" only apply to Microsoft?
So I can easily use QuickTime with the files it supports and VLC for others and restrict Windows Media Player for listening to NPR (I really like All Songs Considered). I never have
Oh and you're right on about Winamp
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
If you could uninstall all of WMP, there wouldn't be a problem. It would be a simple matter for Microsoft to make WMP an optional component; it certainly was in the past.
You can remove up2date from Redhat distros. Same thing for apt-get and Portage. But you can't remove WMP any more than you can remove IE from Windows. You're stuck with it. And having it on a server makes about as much sense as having IE on a server.
The EU simply doesn't have the power to take any other remedy. They can't order that Microsoft be broken up because Microsoft is not a European company. Only the US can do that, and they haven't.
The best the EU can do is fine MS and order them to unbundle software. Personally, I'd like MS to have to unbundle *everything*, including Notepad, and leave it up to the OEM to decide what MS software to add (on an a la carte basis to the OEM) to their basic software load. So, for example, HP in Europe would be within their rights to install barebones Windows XP plus Firefox as the browser, but take the Microsoft components for other things - instead of being forced to bundle the entire lot as they are now.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Why did the US shit it's pants and run to WTO whe europe impossed tarrifs on US steel. When has America used it's market as a club? The best thing for the opwrld wouild be for the US the revert to isolationism.