Slashdot Mirror
EU Gives Microsoft 8 Days Until Fines
kaysan writes "European Commissioner Neelie Kroes has presented Microsoft with an ultimatum: Before Thursday next week, Microsoft must hand over all secret information on Windows protocols to its competition. Should the company choose to ignore this demand, it will be severely fined. Microsoft's history with EU fines so far amounts to approximately Euro777.5 million. Both linked websites are Dutch, but then again, so is EU commissioner Neelie Kroes."
Yeah. Poor Microsoft is getting screwed, instead of doing the screwing. Everyone knows that Microsoft is a pitcher, not a catcher.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
While I am like most of Slashdot in that I think that Microsoft has a very tight grip on the computer market, I still will never understand why the EU is so against Microsoft.
Is it because it is produced in a foreign market? I know many European countries have unhealthy feelings of xenophobia (as does the US). Do they secretly fear that a foreign company having such power over them is a security risk?
Remember: they bought the software, Microsoft didn't bash down their doors screaming "YOU WILL BUY OUR SOFTWARE!!".
There is no such thing as Intellectual Property.
To you, a Linux hippie. To your average Microsoft shareholder, on the other hand...
Europe does not recognize software patents, and as for copyright: it has a very narrowly defined (and abused) goal in law: to provide incentive.
Microsoft is an American company with (primarily) American shareholders. We see things differently and (in a lot of cases) don't agree with how Europe sees things. This could be a good way to spark change.
It's a matter of "public good", something libertarians cannot understand, because they are too much self-centered that they cannot understand why something that is good for them should be prohibited because it's bad for others.
All my customers use Microsoft because the software is easy to use and is stable enough for their purposes. In fact, we haven't had one service call for thousands of desktops for a Microsoft add-on application in about 2 years, other than installation. We have repeated calls for OpenOffice mostly because of memory problems and a reboot is enough to cure it
Busted!!! Lie much?
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
Well, you're technically correct when you say that the population of Europe is twice that of the United States, but it's frankly a bit silly to compare the two in terms of technology and infrastructure. Microsoft can afford to lose much of Europe because it simply is not up to par with the US. Now, there are certainly pockets of civilization in Europe (i.e., London, Berlin, etc.) but most of the rural areas are still coming to grips with things like electricity and indoor plumbing. If you were to walk up to your average European and say things like "Microsoft", "keyboard", "Internet", etc., you might as well be talking to a rock.
The bottom line is that the pictures that we see on Fox News coming out of Europe, with the bread lines and the burning trash barrels, are the rule and not the exception. Having a market with a size "double" that of America is meaningless when 90% of that market has neither the intelligence nor the money to purchase and/or use your product. For this reason I really hope that MS doesn't cave on this.
their future customers use patented MSFT technologies in GNOME, MONO, and SUSE Linux good enough? They're not even going to sue any ONE developer if that developer is only doing nonCOMMERCIAL FOSS work. Man, what do you/EU want from them/MSFT? ;-/
Good to see atleast one organization willing to, and with the power to, nail Microsoft for playing games with them regarding their monopoly power over the PC market. IMO.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
The state creates laws like the prohibition of reverse engineering because the state serves business far more than it does the people. And THAT'S because companies have been allowed to grow unchecked in terms of money and political clout. In an ideal situation, business should have NO political power at all. Governments should have no incentive to create laws in exchange for various favors from wealthy companies. And, realisticaly, there should be limits automatically imposed on the size and wealth of a company to prevent them from becoming more powerful than government. Either concentration of power in is a problem, but I'd still trust government to do the right thing before I'd EVER trust a private business
I'll throw that "total BS" line right back at you.
The problem isn't the money that businesses spend, the problem is the power that you the voters gave to the State. The more power the State has, the more money that is thrown at it. Why doesn't Microsoft lobby my small village or my county? Because the village and county don't have enough power to help them. You, the voters, gave that power to the Federal government, in direct attack of the Constitution's limit on big government. That's a fact.
I have no problem with bribing government officials or unlimited anonymous campaign contributions by anyone, even foreigners. If the State has no power or little power, money won't change that. The voters changed it by electing people who want more State, not less. You did it, you let the power grab go unheeded and out of control.
If the Federal portion of the State was truly limited to the real Constitutional limitations, this problem would not exist -- you'd have to lobby every village, county and state to get control over all the laws. Competition between localities is good, but the Federal government leaves no room for competitive laws since it strongarms other countries into passing the same laws.
European nations absolutely have a problem with foreign companies being too dominant within Europe. I guarantee if Microsoft were European not only would they not have gone to court, but they would have been subsidized by the government.
There's this general resentment against American companies in general. Without getting specific. I've had a number of international clients and dealing with the European offices usually ends up being problematic. We design something for the company, the US office is pleased, but some European office isn't pleased and forces us to redo it. And mind you, these are requests coming from the head office.
Part of the problem is that for some reason people in the US office tend to be pushovers and end up doing anything the Europeans ask. They're constantly afraid to offend the foreign offices despite the fact that those overseas share no such qualms. Although, Asian offices are generally very easy to deal with and generally do whatever the head office asks.
So, back to my original point, Europeans are extremely protectionist. They're constantly violating free market principles to give their own companies unfair advantages, and they do so on a scale American companies could only wish for. I can't say I always blame them, but lets not be naive to the reality of the situation with Microsoft.
I guess this will be the (n+1)th time that Microsoft gets fined by the EU. While this looks like a sincere effort to enable interoperability, I wonder if the net effect isn't just the EU collecting money from Microsoft. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Microsoft Tax".
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
You might want to read this before claiming the infallibility of judges. Did you ever read the Jackson findings? From a technical perspective, his findings are completely misguided. This Slate commentary offers a history of the appellate court thinking, which overruled much of his findings. I was once party to some hearings where a panel of distinguished judges had their ruling overturned by an act of Congress because it was so poorly formed. Believe me, judges can make incredible mistakes. Most of the time they don't, but when you have a political body levying fines against a foreign enterprise, there is a huge conflict of interest. This is a money grab by the EU. No doubt about it, unfortunately.
Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings! -Feynman, maybe