December 22, 2005 4:21 AM PST
Europe threatens Microsoft with daily fines
Last modified: December 22, 2005 8:13 AM PST
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The European Union's executive arm noted that the clock started ticking Dec. 15 and will continue until it makes its final decision in the landmark case against the software giant.
Microsoft was ordered by the Commission in March 2004 to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation to work group server competitors, in order for them to have full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers. That order was part of the Commission's findings that the software giant allegedly abused its market dominance to increase its presence in the work group, server operating system and media player industries.
The Commission, which held discussions with Microsoft about its compliance with its order and hired a trustee to monitor the company's compliance, set a Dec. 15 deadline for meeting the stipulations of its order. That order required Microsoft to supply complete and accurate interoperability information, making its software available on reasonable terms.
"I have given Microsoft every opportunity to comply with its obligations. However, I have been left with no alternative other than to proceed via the formal route to ensure Microsoft's compliance," Neelie Kroes, European competition commissioner, said in a statement.
Microsoft has five weeks to respond to the Commission's statement of objections. The Commission, which will consult with the advisory committees of member state competition authorities, would then issue a decision on whether to impose its fine of up to $2.37 million a day on Microsoft. The fine will be retroactively applied to Dec. 15 and the date that the Commission reaches a final decision on whether Microsoft has complied with its order.
Microsoft said it plans to contest the Commission's statement of objections and request an oral hearing on the issue.
"We believe today's statement of objections is unjustified. The Commission has issued this statement regarding technical documentation we submitted last week, even though, by its own admission, neither it nor the trustee have even
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www.nopieinthesky.net
I would refer the EU Judge *cough* "Gavel Jockey" to http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/legal/eudecision/
O sorry they are based in Europe so they are exempt from the Anti Monopoly Rules.
than forcing them to publish their proprietary
extensions. In the end, their extensions are
inferior and lock the consumer in. The ODF, XHTML,
CSS and HTML are good examplesn of industry
standards that MS has a hard or impossible time
following, which if they followed, would make a huge
difference. Force the monopoly to play by the rules
rather than forcing them to publish their rules
which they can change the moment they publish them.
Since they can't seem to get money from their own highly overtaxed citizens, they want to steal money from a successful American company.
If you want to compete against MS, come up with something better. If Europeans are too stupid to download their mediaplayer of choice, they shouldn't be allowed to use computers! Making MS release a version that has one is utterly stupid.
--and before you Linux peeps start up... yes they could all install linux and turn those paper weights 'back on' WITHOUT MS software
lol
a bigtime MacAddict. Secondly is the EU asking for disclosure
from other software companies? Don't give some BS about how
M$ is squeezing out other businesses because back in 1995
people were saying, "oh Apple is going to go Bankrupt". Guess
what? They didn't! I agree with the previous poster. I am not a
fan of a Foreign Agency trying to tell a U.S. Company what to do.
As far as I am concerned the EU can mind it's own business in
Europe and leave U.S. Business to the U.S. Government.
For you bleeding hearts out there: "If the EU gets away with this
and M$ complies and pays for it, what's to stop them from going
after other U.S. companies?"
of all the MEDIA players Mediaplayer is the most liked cause #1 they do allow other people to make codecs for mediaplayer. Mplayer is another example of a media player that does this. i can go to a website and download a codec for media player if realplayer or apple lets other people do this they would do much better. you can download any codec from websites and not have to wait for Real or apple to realise the codec
i use OOB for anime movies there is none for real player
with apple and realplayer you can only get the codecs from their server and you have to pay for their software (apple has a free but its not full)
Please read the EU pdf that you can find using a searh like Google and the text:
Case COMP/C-3/37.792
for the pdf.
It is a well written text about MS and its abuse of its monopoly state.
It schould have been written in the USA but the US DoJ simply screwed it up.
- Microsoft a Monopoly?
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by Pascoli
December 29, 2005 11:05 PM PST
- In spite of its conviction, I simply don't see MS as a monopoly.There are so many OS's out there. People who use macs do just fine. Linux is free and comes with thousands dollars worth of applications if one had to buy equivalent close source ones. Most ms Offices filles formats have been reverse engeniered. they should just get off of the back of ms and let the market place deal with this. Sun and Oracle were in much better shape in circa 97---2000 up to the bust. All that was way before microsoft conviction. I believe that if it wasn't for microsoft distribution, java would never have met the success it has today; and that was a business deal, not a court order ms followed. if you can not interoperate with their servers, buy another brand. osx as a server that works fine. a company can go all apple and unix. it's nothing like your electric or water company whith whom you've got no choice. and look at the oss movement complaining that the licenses are too expensive and don't comply with their philosopy. then either change your philosophy or don't use their protocols. don't force them to give them to you for free when they are paying people to code.
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