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China Says There's No Antitrust Probe On Microsoft

Posted by timothy on from the and-by-under-wraps-we-meant-welcome-to-china dept.

natenovs writes "China's intellectual-property rights enforcer said the government isn't probing Microsoft Corp. for breaching antitrust laws, denying yesterday's report by a state-owned newspaper. 'We are not conducting an anti-monopoly investigation against Microsoft and have no plans to do so,' Yin Xintian, a spokesman and legal director at the State Intellectual Property Office, said by telephone today in Beijing. The newspaper's report is 'completely untrue,' the agency said on its Web site."

17 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. The Antitrust Probe never happened... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    just like the Tiananmen Square never happened.

    1. Re:The Antitrust Probe never happened... by monxrtr · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "However," noted anonymous internet sources, "probing speculation of a possible Chinese antitrust probe were rumored to have been widespread on areas of the internet outside of the China Firewall." The Redland, Shenainiganghei based office confirmed that "plans are just that -- plans -- and not promises of updates, upgrades, releases, or official actions." US officials noted that this statement was delivered by a Chinese intellectual property rights "enforcer", and not the more common Western "Czar". Said the US official, "if China were to lay down it's 'enforcer' card, we would collect that card with our 'Czar' card, according to internationally established rules regarding the power and value of cards."

      --
      "From DNA to P2P, we are all Copycats now. Go Go Copycat Power! Copycat Powers activate! Form of, a Copycat." --monxrtr
    2. Re:The Antitrust Probe never happened... by wanderingknight · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Who the fuck is this guy? A quick look at the post history reveals nothing but nonsense (links to google.com? WTF?), and a quick look in Google for his website's name reveals similar attempts at spamming other community-based sites (quite poorly, if I might add). The website itself doesn't seem too harmful and it seems actually written by a human being instead of by a random bot, but the fact that it has dozens of hyperlinked words makes me doubtful.

    3. Re:The Antitrust Probe never happened... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Funny

      Maybe his site is an evil plot by the Chinese government to produce lots of random gibberish in English and make web surfers in the decadent west read it. Sooner or later he by sheer luck he is bound to hit on some English specific Gödel Sentence that causes the evil Americans to have a simultaneous brainstorm. Then China can take over the world.

      I would continue posting, but there's a good documentary I've just finished downloading off conspiracytorrents.net, and I really should watch it.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
    4. Re:The Antitrust Probe never happened... by evilkasper · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yin Xintian also stated "We are but a developing 3rd world country how could we possibly conduct an anti-monopoly investigation?"

  2. In Communist China... by notdotcom.com · · Score: 5, Funny

    In Communist China, antitrust probes you!

    --
    Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.
  3. File this under Duh! by pieisgood · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why would china be concerned with Antitrust probes with software companies when China needs them in order to impose there laws on citizens.

    --
    Eat sleep die
    1. Re:File this under Duh! by Rick+Bentley · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why would china be concerned with Antitrust probes with software companies when China needs them in order to impose there laws on citizens. where laws?
      --
      My favorite quote doesn't fit into 120 characters. Now no one will like me.
  4. Floodprot! by Smoke2Joints · · Score: 2, Funny

    jebus almighty, at the time of posting, 60% of posts so far are rated below 1. pick the ball up slashdot, this isnt something awful!

  5. Re:No unsual at all.. by shri · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I should add, that this might not be related to Microsoft at all, but could be a warning sign for some other trade negotiations. "Mess this deal up and we're going after Microsoft"

  6. There's no Microsoft monopoly in China by themushroom · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...because every copy of Windows there is pirated. :)

    --
    Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
  7. China also says there's no.... by aussie_a · · Score: 3, Insightful

    1) Tibet
    2) inherent right to free speech
    3) right to decide how many children you have
    4) rights inherent to human beings.

    I don't think I'm going to trust China on what it says does or does not exist.

    1. Re:China also says there's no.... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In response to 2 - 4, there simply aren't any such things. We've just collectively as a western world decided that they are good things to have. China disagrees. Unless you care to explain to me why there are such things? All three of those in the list are the natural state of existence if no one were to interfere.
      Collectively, as a western world, we've decided to claim we don't interfere.
      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    2. Re:China also says there's no.... by Wildclaw · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1) Tibet China says there is no independent Tibet, and from where I stand it is very obvious that they are right. China has complete control over Tibet, just like the US has complete control over land areas that previously used to belong to other populations.

      2) inherent right to free speech Same with many other countries, with restrictions on libel, slander, hate speech, "confidential" information, etcetra. Although I agree that China does take a rather extreme view to the whole "subvert the goverment" stance, and disagree very much with them on this issue.

      3) right to decide how many children you have Atleast one country has understood that the earth can support only so many people. As a primary instinct of humans is to procreate it isn't strange that you have to rely on societal organisations to limit that activity.

      Of course, christians would rather prefer that the world became overcrowded with poor miserable people than remained decently populated with content people. (Sorry, that was a jab against religious anti-abortists)

      4) rights inherent to human beings First of all, inherent is deceptive word as there can't be any inherent rights for human beings just as there can't be any inherent rights for any being.

      I think what you are talking about is what we as humans, intelligent group animals with empathy, recognize as rights that humans (and animals in some cases) should have independent on the strain/hardship it puts on the rest of society.

      China which is rooted in a deeply in a community first philosophy of course have less such views, although as they are growing richer and communicating more with western countries, they are gradually changing. Of course, it will probably take a long time, but you can actually see small seeds being planted already.

      US is probably not the best places to be talking about "inherent" human rights though. The death penalty is completly unneeded and a big violation to many people. Slashdot is another place that is very selective on human rights. Economic liberterianism is very similar to the chinese view, sacrifice individuals for the greater good, although libertarianism and China defines "greater good" quite differently.

  8. Re:Why all the hub-bub? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Informative

    He's saying Microsoft doesn't have servers for its Instant Messenger or Email services inside China, not that there are no Windows servers inside China.

    The point being that your data won't be snarfed, at least in the absence of a court order from the government.

    FT: Microsoft announced a policy last week to only remove blogs from its services in China if it receives a proper legal order. By in the absence of the rule of law, surely you're not going to get a proper court order?

    BG: We're going to get a government order before we do anything. It's actually very clear who gives these orders. They haven't authorised us to be a news service, so the information departments say that is a news/information thing that is not within the writ of your activities. We're not the first media-related entity to have some activity in China.

    FT: Do you keep information on servers inside China?

    BG: Our servers are all outside China. This whole thing of inside versus outside China, I never understand that, it somehow comes up in the Google discussion. I don't get that at all. This is not about where the servers are. We don't have servers inside China, we just don't. It may be that for responsiveness at some point we'll do that, but that's not the way we work today.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  9. Re:Comes to a satisfactory conclusion by BlackCobra43 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thank God we don't have anything like that here in democratic America. Excuse me, I have to go get my...laundry...from the lobbyists.

    --
    I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
  10. Re:Piracy and Monopolies by CastrTroy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    However, isn't that kind of like dumping? Put your product out on the market, for less than it costs to make it, so that people will use it, allowing you to take over the market. Even assuming that people have legit copies of windows, they are still dumping copies of Office, and many other programs that don't come included with computers. By tolerating the piracy, they have been able to use their large monopoly, and vast piles of cash to get a stranglehold on the desktop market.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.