Slashdot Mirror
Russia Launches Anti-trust Probe of Microsoft
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Russia's state anti-monopoly service said on Thursday it had launched a probe of Microsoft over cutbacks in supplies of its Windows XP operating system in Russia.
The agency said it thought Microsoft had violated antimonopoly legislation by cutting delivery of Windows XP operating system to Russia both separately and pre-installed on personal computers, as well as in its pricing policy on the product.
It said it would consider the case on July 24, 2009."
When I read the first two words I nearly had a heart attack, since the other launches lately have been NK testing missiles.
In Soviet Russia, Microsoft probes YOU!
... in Russia, Microsoft would launch the probe! /Slashdot has been lying to me....
After so many other countries are getting on the whole anti-monopoly bandwagon, why should Russia be left out of the money?
The Russian state anti-monopoly service is itself a monopoly.
And you cant bring the Parker Brothers game into Russia for fear it might contact the anti-monopoly service, creating a huge explosion.
Talk about Goliath versus Goliath. The successful monopolist versus... the slightly less successful monopolist who can rewrite its own legal system. Time to invest in popcorn.
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
we probe you!
A picture is worth exactly 1024 words.
While Microsoft obviously engages in a lot of monopolistic practices and I strongly dislike them for this, Russia's reasoning seems rather flawed.
While yes, it sucks that Windows XP is being EOLed for a lot of people because Vista is worse than XP for many users (IMO anyone with less RAM than the 32-bit addressing limit because if there's anything modern that sucks more than Vista, it's 64-bit XP), products getting EOLed is a fact of life. I can't see any reason why EOLing a product would be monopolistic.
Hell, if anything, it would be just the opposite - EOLing a popular product in favor of a less popular product is going to drive people towards the competition.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
I don't know how to take this news....it looks to me like Russia is saying that it only uses Microsoft products, so they're taking legal action to get more...
"Our goal each year should be to increase the number of goals we set for ourselves!"
Well, Chutzpah is a word derived from hebrew. The best english equivalent is "audacity", and it comes out as this. You can translate it here and hear what it sounds like.
(Too bad Slashdot will inevitably mess up any attempt at a foreign language. The word comes out like this: "ÑмÐÐоÑÑÑOE")
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
I always thought bundling useful tools with an operating system(i.e. IE) was a poor example of leveraging a monopoly to corner a market. However, discontinuing support for old products to FORCE new ones on customers, that is leveraging a monopoly in an anti-competitive manner. This is a much more reasonable case to take against Microsoft's more shady practices.
So in Russia it's illegal for a company to sell a 10 year old product, even though that product will be 2 versions old this year? If we could make legal demands to sell retired products I'd still be eating Ninja Turtle cereal today.
The word comes out like this: "ÑмÐÐоÑÑÑOE"
It translates it to Swedish?
(Too bad Slashdot will inevitably mess up any attempt at a foreign language. The word comes out like this: "ÑмÐÐоÑÑÑOE")
Based on the timescale of the CSS conversion, we should be looking forward to UTF8 support before 2020. Hopefully, the classic (AKA "working") comments system will be restored as default by then also.
took me all of 10 seconds to find 'allofxpsp3.com'
(starting download now)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
If you're referring to EU fines...they are absolutely insignificant pocket change for EU budget; they wouldn't even make a difference to most of its individual memberstates.
In this case the amount of money would be similarly insignificant when it comes to contribution to Russian budget. OTOH...there are certianly few individuals who could forget the whole deal for some favours. That's how things work in post-soviet countries.
In anycase, the claims are bogus, almost everybody runs pirated software in Russia.
One that hath name thou can not otter
It appears that the European efforts have triggered a new trend whereby EVERY country a multinational corporation operates in that isn't its native country can start engaging in the MoneyGrab(tm) technique. I mean why let all those euros or rubles leave the country? Why not have companies come in, sell products, and then since you can't tax the hell out of them due to the WTO and the ensuing trade wars, instead just trump up some charges over being too succcessful and "tax" them that way.
Can someone explain to me why this isn't a WTO issue and why these kinds of taxes... I mean fines aren't regulated under the trade agreements?
And don't tell me how they're just trying to stop the evil monopolies. I'm fine with them fining the shit out of Microsoft for bad behavior as long as they're willing to donate 100% of the proceeds to charity. It's not about the behavior, it's about the money.
We didn't know you had interests other than fighting the RIAA?
My mom works at one of the research institutes in Akademgorodok, a major research center near Novosibirsk, she along with hundreds of others have been running pirated windows/office/photoshop/matlab for as long as I can remember. This time it seems the government is serious about the crackdown on illegal software. Each lab director got a direct order to either provide every scientist with lisenses for every piece of software or install linux. Well. they all have been running Ubuntu since yesterday. So far so good.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
What problems are people having with the Comments Beta system? I'm running Firefox 3, NoScript + AdBlock (which slashdot.org and fsdn.com whitelisted) and I find it quite nice to have dynamically expanding messages and responses. Is this a problem on some browsers or configurations?
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
If I were MSFT, I'd be worried about the weak rule of law in Russia. It is highly likely that there is pre-determined outcome in the mind of the Russian officials running this case and any 'investigation' will be a show trial leading to that pre-determined outcome.
I have visited Russia many times. Might makes right. It is a system that breathes on graft and corruption.
in the entire Russian Federation. They are owned by six Microsoft consultants currently traveling in Russia.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.
Apparently in Russia, people have a right to an operating system, but no rights to life, liberty, or pursuit of happiness.
So in Russia it's illegal for a company to sell a 10 year old product, even though that product will be 2 versions old this year? If we could make legal demands to sell retired products I'd still be eating Ninja Turtle cereal [flickr.com] today.
What, Fruity pebbles isn't good enough for you? What are you, a communist?
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Well they'd have to find better ways because any money they'd get from Microsoft would be a negligible drop in the bucket.
WTF? That car's older than my dad, and he's in his seventies. And guess what? You can STILL get parts for one! Try getting any parts for Windows 98, that's not even 10 years old. I have older t-shirst than that.
Now please put the chair down, Steve.
Free Martian Whores!
Exactly! Why are so many people bitching about "oooo, there's no alternatives! We need XP still!" If people don't wanna spend to upgrade, move to the FOSS side. It's not hard, people!
Canada: The US's more awesome sibling.
This is just too beautiful.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Ok, I confess my joke wasn't the best joke evar but, really, it was just a joke...
XP is a 9 year old OS. Even auto makers are only required to support the parts for their cars for 7 years
In the US and Europe, automobiles are heavily regulated to meet certain standards, and software is not. If a 9 year old car is many times safer, more reliable, more fuel efficient, much better looking, and more easily fixed than the 2 year old car coming from the factory now, and the new car is just a total dog, and if community outrage was so high that people would only want to buy the old car, and this was the only auto maker available to buy cars from then damn straight the community would be in the moral right to demand that company continue to support the old car model until the choice of a car that was as good or better came along.
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist both in the US and Europe. If there was more competition, and Vista was a dog, people could turn to another company for better service. But they can't. They turn back to Microsoft and demand XP. They are, allegedly, trying to control the supply channel by strangling supplies of XP and hoping this will force demand to Vista, which will make Vista look better as sales go up. They have an image problem with Vista and they are using their monopoly power to try to fix it. If this was a competitive market and Linus and Mac OS had 33% each, We could just switch to one of them and Microsoft would have to compete.
Once you are a monopoly, 99% of the business book is thrown out the window. Everything comes down to, "when you take an action as a monopolistic company, are you abusing your market dominance and reducing choice for the consumer?" A car maker to tried to do this without monopolistic power would shoot themselves in the foot for cancelling a profitable product line just because they want to sell more of another. The American automakers did just this, by trying to sell more trucks and SUVs when the future trend was towards smaller fuel efficient cars. Now GM and Chrysler are on life support, and Hyundai is making out like a bandit. Competition would have done that to Microsoft to, but there is none, so they have to follow different rules. If they don't follow those rules, any and all governments need to slap their greedy hands.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Yiddish, actually.
A better equvialent is "nervy gall".
Chutzpah is when you murder your parents, and then throw yourself on the mercy of the court because you're an orphan.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
There's only I've place where I've seen more IP violations that China, and that is Russia. Heck, most of the copied DVDs sold in China COME from Russia!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
You make a really good point.
It's quite easy for a third party to manufacture compatible parts for an automobile. There's a huge and thriving industry based on exactly that premise.
Not so for proprietary software. Many vendors go to significant lengths, both legally and technically, to prevent this. Microsoft is a good example.
So when Microsoft says "we will no longer support this product" it's not like there is someone else who can take over that support. It's abuse of a monopoly position that has been deliberately engineered. Not cool.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
Amazing how people's attitude towards Free software changes once they learn the true cost of opening pictures with Photoshop and typing memos with MS Office. I do wish people came to Linux voluntarily but after 20 years of unrestrained piracy only threat of heavy fines can make people give up what they have come to believe is rightfully theirs.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
"Chutzpah" is better translated as "naglost'", definitely not "smelost'" ("bravery").
System Operates YOU!!
~kulakovich
Umm... Give us free cookies or you are a monopoly. That's rich coming from a country in which most top government officials hold positions in the monopoly energy concern of the said country. The cynicism of this move is just unbelievable. Ever since they managed to confuse the world enough to think that Georgia attacked them, they must think that the whole he-said-she-said they manufacture is enough to get their way in anything they want.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Microsoft has enjoyed abusing it's power and not it's on the receiving end of governments abusing their power. They deserve this.
Yes, like 64bit OS will stop people from opening that attachment or downloading Antivirus2015 and running it.
Also, people will code 32bit apps, because they are more compatible (runs on both 32bit ant 64bit systems), while 64bits is only useful if your app uses a lot of RAM or CPU. There is no point for a 64bit CD/DVD recording software, media player and browser. 64bits can be useful for games, photoshop and video editing software.
If I understand correctly, to make a 32bit app from 64bit (or vice versa) you need to recomplie it, it's not like you need to rewrite it.
Microsoft will just have to bribe some rusky official and this will all go away. Sure they will make some noise to make it all seem legit, but in the end this will get resolved in a back room with a nice fat check.
If the company does not have a monopoly, nobody cares, it's their problem if they do not want our money anymore.
However, Microsoft has a monopoly and a lot of companies/people depend on Windows XP, so MS has to make Windows XP available for purchase (or stop crying about piracy). It's the same if the power company, which has a monopoly, stopped supplying power to its customers stating that now everybody has to get new wiring installed, also they will change the voltage and/or frequency so that everyone has to pay for new wires and buy transformers/frequency converters conveniently sold by the same power company. They have the monopoly, get money for the electricity, can change the price of energy once a year (after an approval of the government which sets a limit on how much profit the power company can make) and have to keep supplying power.
You make a really good point.
Except the part about windows 98 being less than 10 years old...
probe (or, probiscus) up ms' derrier (or, dirty rear), the anti-trust court can say, Ben-dova, BAYBEE... This is From Russia, with LOVE..." And, to modivy some Bond, add, "For YOUR thighs ONLY"...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
A former-communist country saying that Microsoft violates anti-trust laws is very interesting.
However, Vista sucks big time in the few installations I have and I understand why most people hate, including entire countries like Russia.
Vista also by most accounts I have read here takes beefier hardware. Perhaps the Russian authorities are looking out for their citizens who might not have as much cash to throw at newer/more expensive hardware as western Europeans and folks in the US, etc.
Vista might be more difficult to pirate..perhaps..just something to consider given the rumors about what most Russians are running, which is mostly peg legged softwarez...that is all total speculation on my part though,. just what I have read, and mostly here BTW
Then there is just the "some fatcats are looking for some cash payoffs" angle, a shakedown routine, because they know MS has some spare cash laying around
Besides, computer literacy is IMHO very low in CIS countries because of piracy. Sure, everybody has the latest and the most expensive software available, but that's it. People don't look for alternatives especially if these are free which is perceived as low quality.
So we have a great number of people who have XP Professional Corporate Edition, use Photoshop solely for red-eye-reduction, type notes in MS-Word but don't know how to insert a page break (these people are the loudest to bitch about OOo if they are forced to use it). Hell, I've seen scientific papers written in MS-Word with formulas written down by hand because no one knows about LaTeX!
ideally...
Having worked on a few such projects... in order to take advantage of more ram, you often cross memory limits that your previous 32bit system did not.
I worked in memory imaging for example. When dealing with huge datasets, we converted to 64bit... and started dealing with 7 gig datasets. Suddenly, the performance starts to be a factor. You often need to revisit that.
Not to mention much code assumed 32 bit its, especially some older networking code...
Let's not even get into Microsoft's directory/registry structure for 32 vs 64 bit programs.
Whoever Wins....We Lose.
Huh?
It's "Academy [of Sciences] town" in Russian.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Russia -- "Das Vadanya Microsloht... Ve don't vant your DRM shite."
MS -- "We'll be back!"
Russia -- "Retarget da misssiles un Redmond nd release za dogs. V has vays sof yetting vhat ve vant."
Let's face it if Windows was pirate proof Linux would be everywhere.
About 50% on all 4 cores. This is 1080p h264 video playing on 2x Opteron 270 (2x2GHz), which is a bit old by current standards.
Anyway, I believe all current video cards can decode HD video, so my CPU usage would lower if I had a better card than my HD2900XT.
64bit coding is useful for big programs (or ones that need to process huge amounts of data, like a video encoder), while a media player can be 32bits, access the video card for video decoding (audio decoding can be done on 32bit CPUs) and stay small.
I wouldn't use a media player or CD/DVD writing program that needed >2GB RAM. Even for buffers, that's too much.
Who do I root for on this one?