Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Responds to EU With Another Question
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has responded to the latest round of EU requests by asking how much the EU thinks they should charge for Windows Server Protocols. The EU has stated the Microsoft should charge based on 'innovation, not patentability' and that they have 'examined 160 Microsoft claims to patented technologies' concluding 'only four may only deserve to claim a limited degree of innovation.' The EU is also starting to discuss structural remedies as opposed to the behavioral remedies they are currently enforcing. At what point has/will the EU overstepped its bounds?"
The EU has already overstepped their bounds. No government should be allowed to tell a company what it is they can charge for a product nor whether their individual products are "innovative" or just "patentable".
Forget the fact that the entire process is a blatant example of socialism, it's just purely one-sided and I believe that no matter what Microsoft does at this point the EU will just continue to abuse this implied authority that they've been granted until they can drive Microsoft off their shores or make all of the products free in EU.
A government should never tell a private organization what it can charge for a product. Might as well just have the government own the business (since it is setting prices) which leads to communism!
Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.