Deadline Looming for Microsoft in Antitrust Case

gaijincory writes "The International Herald Tribune reminds us that the end of the month is Microsoft's deadline to comply with the European Commission's antitrust ruling. The fine for non-compliance? A cool $5 million per day."

Comments

$5 million isn't much, considering...

[Ralph Spoilsport]

the last time I checked, MS has something like $40 billion in cash. So, divide 40 billion by 5 million and you get 21.9 YEARS before they run out of whatever they've got stashed under the mattress.

The money isn't going to hurt these people - it's the bad publicity.

Of course, MS dittoheads, lackies and lusers might kick up such a fuss, that if MS holds out, they might spin it into "Those Mean Old Europeans are Picking in a Good American Corporation" and after a few years, the Europeans might just give up.

Also. once the judgement is passed, it's not like they're going to get busted again - they're already in the doghouse of international opinion.

My guess is they will find some kind of settlement, and brush it under the carpet. With the kind of Social Amnesia that your average idiot American suffers under, it'll all be forgotten in six months, like Iraqi WMD, and Japanese Internment Camps...

RS

Why exactly..

[fyrewulff]

Are Linux distros allowed to include media players (XMMS) and browsers (Konqueror, Firefox, Mozilla), but Microsoft is not? If Microsoft should not be allowed to include Windows Media Player on WindowsXP, neither should any other operating system be allowed to include their media player by default - and neither should OTHER media players be included by default. In short, the better solution would be to have the most popular media players all available in a default install - IE, install Windows, and it gives you a menu of which player you want installed. Same with Linux. I'm all for justice, but it's not justice if it's a double standard.