Slashdot Mirror
EU Rejects Microsoft Royalty Proposal
pallmall1 writes "According to MSNBC, The Financial Times has reported that the EU is going to drastically reduce or even eliminate Microsoft's proposed royalties on interoperability information required to be released by the EU's antitrust ruling issued three years ago. According to a confidential EU document, "Microsoft will be forced to hand over to rivals what the group claims is sensitive and valuable technical information about its Windows operating system for next to no compensation...". Even Neil Barrett, the expert picked by both Microsoft and the EU to oversee Microsoft's compliance with the 2004 ruling, says a zero percent royalty would be 'better.'"
The EU doesn't recognize the validity of "trade secrets"?
What would be interesting to know is the actual legal basis of the decision. MS, for one reason or another, is being deprived of a form of "intellectual property", albeit the weakest form there is. The question is are they being forced to do this in order to foster competition, or are they being forced do this as punishment for their anticompetitive practices?
Frankly, I agree with the zero royalty idea. Once the secret has been licensed enough times, it is not very secret anymore.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
"Three Microsoft rivals that have reviewed the group's pricing scheme extensively - understood to be IBM, Sun and Oracle - come to the same conclusion: "The prices charged by Microsoft are prohibitive and would not allow them to develop products that would be viable from a business perspective," the Commission charge sheet says."
It looks like these 3 companies won't have to worry about emerging competition from MS in the server space. The EU can sleep peacefully knowing that prices won't drop.