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Hungary Officials Raid Microsoft Office
Steve writes "Hungarian government officers raided the offices of a Microsoft subsidiary this week, as part of a probe into the company's relationship with large software distributors. From the article: 'According to the statement, Microsoft used sales conditions and offered software distributors incentives - described as loyalty discounts - so they wouldn't offer clients anything but Microsoft Office products. Such behavior could lead to the exclusion of competitive products from the market and violate European Union rules, according to the authority known as the GVH.'"
What, did they think Microsoft had something tasty in there?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Microsoft uses its monopoly to block others? What is going on here?
...for anti-anti-competitive practices. According to a Microsoft spokesperson, "We are troubled by evidence of direct resistance to Microsoft corporate directives."
In other news, Microsoft is merging with the RIAA and MPAA to reform the Dutch East India Company. Pirates beware!
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Doing their best to eliminate all competition with their monopolistic practices.
It's no different than their blood deals with SuSe and such. Tie everyone up with obligations to not use other products or make them pay royalties with Microsoft's threats of lawsuits for crap patents.
I bought my last Microsoft product years ago. No way in hell will I support a company like them.
And for those that talk about Microsoft's "innovation", I'd like to counter with their outright thefts of code (Stacker), their sabotaging other company's products when they detect them running in Windows (Word Perfect), their screwing customers so they could pretend that IE was a critical component of the OS (Win98), and all the other dirty tricks they constantly pull.
Doesn't Bill Gates have enough money? When will they actually produce a quality product instead of pushing junk on people? When will they let the market actually support innovation?
Yeah, yeah - I know I am no Microsoft fan boy and this may get labelled as flame bait or a troll, but seriously - this is just another example of Microsoft's dirty tricks and using their weight to screw everyone else - including their very own fan boys.
I read it as the most odd collection of ideas, like, "Hungry Officials RAID 'Microsoft Office XP'.
"Microsoft used sales conditions and offered software distributors incentives - described as loyalty discounts - so they wouldn't offer clients anything but Microsoft Office products. "
And if that didn't work, then they brought out the chairs.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Wahh!!! Only a handful of comments and still all the good jokes are already taken!
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
How does it feel when you didn't do anything illegal and suddenly your office is raided, productivity grinds to a halt and all because someone somehow felt that you might have done something illegal?
Think 'bout that next time your BSA guys believe a disgruntled ex-employee who just wants to give his ex-company a piece of mind as a revenge bit. Unlike some other companies, you'll brush this loss of productivity off. Other companies ain't so lucky, and a day of ZERO productivity (lacking any other offices abroad that could compensate) is quite hard on companies that have to meet tight deadlines.
(sorry for the venting, but it really, really felt good)
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Microsoft hasn't done anything illegal, but we are a former Stalinist dictatorship, so we just raid people's businesses and homes for the fun of it and to keep them on their toes. It's all the rage. Even the U.S. is getting in on the game. We call it CHEKA-chic.
Not directly related, but Hungary is very much into open source. Also, according to google analytics for my open source project, I get quite a few hits from Hungary. And remember European Firefox usage from a few weeks ago? Hungary is one of the leading adopters of Firefox in the world. I wonder if this kind of IT culture has any bearing on how hard they will go after M$.
But without the off-topic banter why would we visit slashdot?
Developers: We can use your help.
This is all probably because of a misunderstanding caused by a bad Hungarian-English dictionary.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
by offering a strOfBribes to nVendors to successfully fnDominateMarket.
The police pFinger at MS for performing an illegal operation, however MS contends that bAllegations == False.
Yes, because government raids are the cornerstone of freedom and democracy.
Seriously, I think the EU should start charging companies like Real, Sun, etc for the service they provide in helping them to succeed in business without really trying.
No, Hungarian Notation was invented by Charles Simonyi when he worked at PARC. When he took a job at Microsoft and tried to introduce it there, it was completely misunderstood, and that bastardized version is what most untrained programmers came to know (no thanks to Microsoft's developer training). Since they seemingly couldn't even be bothered to pronounce his name, it became known as Hungarian Notation.
The real thing is incredibly useful, and I encourage all unfamiliar with it to read through Joel's article.
Lies about crimes