Microsoft Fails to Comply With EU Requirements

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.

Comments

WTF

[yoshi_mon]

Bill Gates may be a British knight, but he is not yet emperor of Europe.

Please someone in the UK tell me that you did not knight Bill Gates.

And in other news.....

[digThisXL]

The pope is catholic!

Re:$1.8 billion a year is a lot of dough

[Narchie Troll]

OT:

"I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal."
-- Roger Baldwin in his college yearbook.

That's the full quote and source. Context is a really neat thing, isn't it?

Sadly, this is pocket change to Bill Gates

[WillAffleckUW]

He just got the Washington State Supreme Court to hand him a ruling that says he doesn't have to pay Estate Tax, and that's $145 million right there.

So $5 million a day is a long time from his viewpoint, especially when he's the richest man in the World, with Paul Allen the fourth richest - and that's most of Microsoft's stockholders right there.