Slashdot Mirror
'No Alternative' To Microsoft Fine
An anonymous reader writes "News.com is running an interview with Neelie Kroes, the competition commissioner for the EU. She confirms that the massive fines to Microsoft are absolutely necessary, and goes into some of the commissions reasons for slapping the giant down." From the article: "Microsoft has claimed that its obligations in the decision are not clear, or that the obligations have changed. I cannot accept this characterization--Microsoft's obligations are clearly outlined in the 2004 decision and have remained constant since then. Indeed, the monitoring trustee appointed in October 2005, from a shortlist put forward by Microsoft, believes that the decision clearly outlines what Microsoft is required to do. I must say that I find it difficult to imagine that a company like Microsoft does not understand the principles of how to document protocols in order to achieve interoperability. "
Are you GAY ?
Are you a NIGGER ?
Are you a GAY NIGGER ?
If you answered "Yes" to all of the above questions, then GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) might be exactly what you've been looking for!
Join GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) today, and enjoy all the benefits of being a full-time GNAA member.
GNAA (GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA) is the fastest-growing GAY NIGGER community with THOUSANDS of members all over United States of America and the World! You, too, can be a part of GNAA if you join today!
Why not? It's quick and easy - only 3 simple steps!
- First, you have to obtain a copy of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE THE MOVIE and watch it. You can download the movie (~130mb) using BitTorrent.
- Second, you need to succeed in posting a GNAA First Post on slashdot.org, a popular "news for trolls" website.
- Third, you need to join the official GNAA irc channel #GNAA on irc.gnaa.us, and apply for membership.
Talk to one of the ops or any of the other members in the channel to sign up today! Upon submitting your application, you will be required to submit links to your successful First Post, and you will be tested on your knowledge of GAYNIGGERS FROM OUTER SPACE.If you are having trouble locating #GNAA, the official GAY NIGGER ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA irc channel, you might be on a wrong irc network. The correct network is NiggerNET, and you can connect to irc.gnaa.us as our official server. Follow this link if you are using an irc client such as mIRC.
If you have mod points and would like to support GNAA, please moderate this post up.
| ______________________________________._a,____ | Press contact:
| _______a_._______a_______aj#0s_____aWY!400.___ | Gary Niger
| __ad#7!!*P____a.d#0a____#!-_#0i___.#!__W#0#___ | gary_niger@gnaa.us
| _j#'_.00#,___4#dP_"#,__j#,__0#Wi___*00P!_"#L,_ | GNAA Corporate Headquarters
| _"#ga#9!01___"#01__40,_"4Lj#!_4#g_________"01_ | 143 Rolloffle Avenue
| ________"#,___*@`__-N#____`___-!^_____________ | Tarzana, California 91356
| _________#1__________?________________________ |
| _________j1___________________________________ | All other inquiries:
| ____a,___jk_GAY_NIGGER_ASSOCIATION_OF_AMERICA_ | Enid Al-Punjabi
| ____!4yaa#l___________________________________ | enid_al_punjabi@gnaa.us
| ______-"!^____________________________________ | GNAA World Headquarters
` _______________________________________________' 160-0023 Japan Tokyo-to Shinjuku-ku Nishi-Shinjuku 3-20-2
You can waste your mod points on me, I'm black, gay and proud!
And MS WILL find a way to recoup the money from ALL of us, their customers. That's what pisses me off about politicans, they think the fines are paid by the "executives" or the evil rich shareholders, when most of the shareholders are folks that have their retirement funds invested with the company or are just trying to make a better life for themselves. And then the politicians will use that money to buy more votes.
God! I envy such a cushy job! No wonder so many European kids want to work for the Government - plus that's the only place to to get guaranteed employment forever!
Mod parent up! Like ANY typical government body, the EU is greedy and practices the golden rule quite frequently: those who make the rules get the gold. So, Microsoft pays out a little money and boosts prices (passing it on to the consumer) while the Euro bureacrats get richer. How does this help the computer users? Not at all. Imagine instead if they had punished Microsoft by forcing it in some way to be better to its consumers. Or imagine if they had forced Microsoft to pay this money DIRECTLY to computer users. Nope, never going to happen. The main interest of the EU is in enriching itself, not helping anyone. No way the victims of Microsoft, however they are defined, are going to see justice however it is defined.
Where were you when the voynix came?
I am technically literate. I roll my eyes when some one sends me something from some 1% market share application like they are making a statement. I have a job to do, wife and kids to see. A life outside of work. Save the idealism for religion and esoteric college courses. To call ppl ignorant because they have something better to do than worry about which format is used is, well, ignorant.
First, I think they are right by saying the specifications are unclear. That would be my "mainstream" objection/q.
Second, any government power is illegitimate. The EU harms both its citizens and Microsoft by standing in between.
\u262D = \u5350
Bullshit.
The facts are that Microsoft spent millions developing Active Directory, and rather than offer competing solutions, guys like Samba want to clone Active Directory and give it away for free. And they want, nay, *demand*, that Microsoft assist them in doing this. This is bullshit.
There's nothing stopping competitors from offering their own network solutions that can be installed in Windows clients and run on whatever server OS they choose. Then they could try to compete with Active Directory on mertis. But no, they want to just create a free clone of Active Directory run on some *nix server.
You guys supporting government fleecing the company that spend millions developing something so that OSS can make cheap knockoffs rather than develop potentially better solutions are misguided, to say the leasr.
This is about the EU trying to get even with America. They can't stand the fact that like Israel we will defend ourselves when attracted. They don't have the means to protect themselves from Islamic terrorism and they know it. Mostly they don't care because that terrorism is primarily directed at us and Israel. They don't like us defending ourselves though because it means their fuel costs go up, and yes they probably are more often victim of terrorism as the terrorists get desperate and decide they have to attack someone to stay relevant and realize that we are largely out of reach and Israel has learn to be a hard target. In the end though it comes down to follow the money and it leads to oil.
They don't like us destabilizing the middle east even if it is for our own good because these dictators are largely their cronies, cough* Fiance and Germany. They keep the oil flowing their direction and all they have to do is give a crazy person a nuclear reactor once every few decades, no problem their right? So they sit a bitch every bit us much as we do here in America about energy costs going up and blame us for it. Never mind the fact that WE have paid the premiums for stability in that region for thirty years, by keeping the place under control with a constant military presence. The memories of these Euro-LIBs is even shorter then that of people who subscribe to American liberalism. The street their gulps down the propaganda Kool-aid their socialist governments churn out.
Its easy for them to get everyone up in arms against some America company. These politicians get a champaign point, See See I did something about corporate abuse while not pissing any of their constituents off by hurting a company from their own economy, where unemployment is sky high compared to this country I might point out. At the same time the grab a little monetary pay-back by stealing revenue that would have gone to the US economy for goods produced here for export.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html