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Microsoft Fails to Comply With EU Requirements

Posted by Zonk on from the close-but-no-cigar dept.

sebFlyte writes "ZDNet is reporting the news that the EU has rejected Microsoft's attempt to wriggle out of it's legal obligation to open up Windows protocols. Microsoft was attempting to bypass the regulation by offering a license totally incompatible with the GPL and which has an absurdly high fee attached. If Microsoft don't come up with a solution that the EU finds acceptable, then they can be fined $5m a day. They've also got some commentary on why Microsoft's behaviour cannot be allowed to stand." The BBC has commentary as well.

2 of 609 comments (clear)

  1. It's simpler, really by Moraelin · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, the EU didn't say MS had to GPL any program of their own. The EU just said they had to license their protocols and APIs to everyone, in a non-discriminating way.

    Again, this doesn't mean that Windows had to be suddenly GPLed, but that the APIs should be available to _anyone_ who wants to write a program for Windows. Hardly an unreasonable demand, don't you think?

    Well, MS basically thought it was smart and slapped a license on those protocols and APIs that basically said you can't share that info with anyone, or show your code to anyone. Basically a legalese way of saying "ok, but you can't use those specs in an OSS program."

    Which basically already places a rather unreasonable restriction, when the whole idea in the first place was to make that info available to everyone.

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
  2. Re:Countries' rates... by a+whoabot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Unemployment in Scandinavia by Country, according to the CIA world factbook. Finland, Greenland and Iceland included as they're all at various times and places considered Scandinavian, at least that's what Wikipedia told me.

    Sweden: 4.9% (2003 estimate)
    Norway: 4.7% (2003 est.)
    Denmark: 6.1% (2003)
    Finland: 9% (2003 est.)
    Iceland: 3.4% (2003 est.)
    Greenland: 10% (2000 est.)

    For comparison:

    United States: 6% (2003)
    United Kingdom: 5% (2003 est.)
    Canada: 7.8% (2003 est.)
    France: 9.7% (2003 est.)
    Germany: 10.5% (2003 est.)
    Netherlands: 3.7% (2003 est.)
    Switzerland: 3.7% (2003 est.)

    This link says that the European Union's unemployment rate as a whole is 8%. They report various numbers differently than the CIA world factbook, such as reporting Denmark's rate as "below 5 per cent." They also say:

    "Still, there is however no obvious relationship between the degree of social protection and the unemployment rate today. For example, the Netherlands has returned to low unemployment while continuing to offer high social protection. Scandinavian countries have maintained both high social protection and a low natural rate of unemployment."