RSSMicrosoft, EU Argue Over Compliance
By Ed Oswald | Published March 30, 2006, 11:03 AM
Microsoft's battle against the European Commission has moved forward on two fronts. The company was denied the right to force its rivals to reveal communications with the EU Wednesday, and a hearing on whether Microsoft has complied with a 2004 antitrust ruling began Thursday.
On Wednesday, a California judge refused to force Sun and Oracle to provide internal documents that would assist the company's case. U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Trumbull said in her decision that as a matter of courtesy, she would not interfere with the legal proceedings of a foreign court.
Microsoft attempted to use U.S. courts as a way to obtain the documents after its initial request was denied by the EU Commission. The documents that the company was interested in were copies of communications between Microsoft's rivals and the the antitrust watchdog in Europe.
Judges in New York and Boston are still considering similar requests by Microsoft regarding IBM and Novell, however it's fairly likely that those requests would be denied as well.
The documents would have been used to support Microsoft in its two-day compliance hearing, which will determine if the company must pay a 2 million euro daily fine dating back to December 15, 2005. This means the company could owe several hundred million euros in fines when a decision is handed down next week.
December 15 had been chosen because that is the deadline by which Microsoft was supposed to have complied with the Commission's decision and applied all remedies.
As the proceedings opened Thursday, the Commission accused the Redmond company of turning the case into a "media exercise."
Microsoft's frequent statements and comments regarding the case, as well as the hearing itself, were only to distract from the facts itself in an attempt to win in the court of pubic opinion, Commission lawyers say. Microsoft had also attempted to open the hearing to the public, something the agency's rules prohibit.
For its part, Microsoft says it is willing to do more to appease the EU, but asked for clearer instructions and said fines were not the answer.
please add me in your google talk
john.new2@gmail.com
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Why?
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Again; why not make a stupid installer? Sell VistaEU with nothing but a super basic windows, and let customers add anything else.
Why wouldn't that work?
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Vista Starter. I'm sure that's one of the big reasons they created that SKU.
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I wonder what the world would do, if Bill pulled windows off the shelf for a few years and completely closed off support for the product.
I'm suprised he doesn't move his empire to a deserted island, create his own country, and say screw all the laws they are trying to enforce on him.
Cut the price of windows in half and make it mail order, online order, or downloadable only. If he's shiping out of his own country would all the anti-trust laws effect him then? LOL
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"I wonder what the world would do, if Bill pulled windows off the shelf for a few years and completely closed off support for the product."
In your cartoon dream world, maybe.
"I'm suprised he doesn't move his empire to a deserted island, create his own country, and say screw all the laws they are trying to enforce on him."
There's that cartoon dream world again...
"Cut the price of windows in half and make it mail order, online order, or downloadable only. If he's shiping out of his own country would all the anti-trust laws effect him then? LOL"
More likely, but what about copyright law enforcement? LOL...
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LKOL or double the price, knowing Bill. with no laws to hold him in check he could hold the world for ransom
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LOL true. But I get the feeling he isn't in this for the money anymore. I think he just likes being the king. I know I would. LOL Hell he can't give his money away fast enough now.
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They (EU) believe Microsoft is abusing their market dominance to choke out competing technologies or programs. (bundling having anything to do with the competing technologies failure is debateable - examples being WinAMP, iTunes, Firefox, the list goes on)
Simple answer:
Once Vista is released, sell *only* the starter edition in the EU and shut down activation servers in regards to all previous versions of Windows. Following that, send out notification that licenses for those products in the EU have been revoked and offering, in exchange, a discounted or free copy of Vista Starter.
Compliance achieved, backward and forward. The EU gets what they want at the expense of the EU consumer. MS gets out of the fine and any future legal hassle from the EU.
Perhaps then, the EU consumer will *do* something about the absurd failure that is the EC.
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That.
Is the best idea for a resolution I have heard yet.
Someone should write Bill an e-mail with that idea.
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This is going to go against Microsoft I believe. I can read Microsofts own documents and can tell they are going above and beyond-- unless their legal documents are blatently false. Seems crazy to me, this whole EU thing. I really believe this will end up wounding Microsoft badley, even though in the end EU will find them not guilty. Problem is that won't happen for another year or so.
Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am. I bet I'm not though. Sad reality is, wear down Microsoft slowly through the courts, even if finding them not guilty in the end--and you can eventually kill them. I can't speak for those other companies as a whole, but I hope the bas****s who started this Microsoft witch-hunt may somehow have a change of heart...
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Change of heart? At E2,000,000 a day? Come on...
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:( Yeah, you're right. What am I thinking?
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$2,000,000 a day is pocket change to MS. Thats only what? $730,000,000 a year? LMAO!
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