Microsoft Sues EU

mormop writes "News.com is reporting that Microsoft is hauling the European Commission into court." The case is in response to "imposed sanctions against the software giant, including a record fine of about $621 million (497 million euro) in March 2004, in a case that also covered the bundling of Microsoft's Media Player with Windows, but the company has not entirely carried them out."

Comments

Inflammatory summary

[gbulmash]

The Slashdot summary seems to be deceptive. According to TFA, the case is "specifically concerning the issue of broad licenses for the source code of communications protocols." To sum it up more succinctly, Microsoft was ordered to open up protocols for print and file sharing and some security tasks to competitors so they could better integrate their products with MSFT server products. Microsoft got this softened to include a provision that the parties they opened up the protocols to could not publish them. Of course, this left all FOSS groups swinging in the wind because they couldn't agree to that provision and remain open source.

Microsoft agreed to let a court rule on the matter and provide more specific guidance, so the case is really about whether these protocols will be available to FOSS projects which could then publish their code that works with the protocols. TFA does not say that the case reaches any broade than that or touches on the $621 million penalties at all.

So what the case really seems to be about is not the whole EU judgement or Microsoft "hauling the EU into court" (an inflammatory phrasing), but Microsoft trying to "open up" the protocols as ordered, yet keep them closed to a certain extent by requiring an NDA from anyone who got access to them.

So, is the Slashdot summary a bit overreaching in its description of Microsoft's actions? IMO, yes. Does it make what Microsoft is doing right? IMO, no. I believe that these protocols are very basic ones and essential to interoperability. By denying them to FOSS projects, they hobble those projects in their ability to compete on an even playing field. The idea behind anti-trust sanctions is to make the playing field more even.

Opening these protocols to FOSS projects is not likely to cause Microsoft irreparable harm. The only danger I could imagine is that opening them will expose a megaplex of holes in the protocols and we'll see a rush of exploits that make the worst Microsoft security issue in its history seem like a minor incident. Then it will harm Microsoft because it will cost them billions in sales as people migrate to non-Microsoft server software to escape the invasion of worms and other exploits poking through those holes.

Re:Inflammatory summary

[einhverfr]

I never said it would be bad to do this, just that it would cause them harm that could not easily be repaired.

Of course collateral estoppel* in the antitrust case in the US is causing them irreparable harm too, but this is good and part of how it affects them,

*IANAL, but this has been explained to me as the principle that facts necessarily decided in one case cannot be relitigated in another unless one can demonstrate that the facts have materially changed. Courts do this to prevent inconsistancy at least in the US. Hence Microsoft cannot relitigate the fact that they have monopoly power in the desktop computer OS market, nor can they relitigate the fact that they have abused that power in an attempt to protect their monopoly. When we say "convicted monopolist" this is largely what we mean (though courts have often referred to other sorts of civil infractions as "civil convictions").

Re:Deeper pockets than Microsoft?

[EvilMonkeySlayer]

Yeah, right.. European army.
This is a fallacy, not one single power in Europe has agreed to such a thing and it's doubtful they ever will. At most you're looking at closer military cooperation in the future akin to NATO, however for the most part all the cooperation pieces are in place.

Pretty much every single European nation balks at the idea of a European army, there are so many barriers and nightmares as to make it next to impossible.

First you've got the basic language barrier, then you've got the equipment barrier. You may think that everybody in western europe has standardised on certain types of ammunition but think again, as an example standard 5.56mm bullets for the British SA-80 (L85A2) actually cause jamming problems, so much so that the SA-80 now using its own type of 5.56mm ammunition.
You've also got vehicles and national pride issues, everybody is going to want to use their tanks or their APC's for the European army. So, again you'll have people bickering over which percentage of a nations make of tank is used rather than the best one for the job, you'll also have the issues of ammunition again. Western European tanks use 120mm rounds, East European tanks use 125mm rounds adding to logistical headaches.

It goes on and on, it's safe to say there will never be a European army. The closest we'll ever see is something akin to NATO and a rapid reaction force.