Print this article | E-mail this article | Comment on this article

Microsoft Officially Drops EU Appeals

By BetaNews Staff, BetaNews

October 24, 2007, 11:49 AM

As expected following news Monday that Microsoft would finally comply with the European Union's requirement that it make parts of its Windows source code available for distribution to developers, the Redmond company has officially dropped its appeal of the original 2004 antitrust ruling, as well as an appeal of the fine imposed in July 2006.

Seemingly eager to put the matter behind the company once and for all, Microsoft says it paid that fine of 280.5 million euros in October 2006. Microsoft had also appealed a provision of the 2004 decision that required it to freely open certain Windows protocols to open source developers, but that effort was struck down last month, leading the company to file another appeal. The company said that appeal was now unnecessary due to the deal with the EU Commission announced Monday.

Add a Comment (4 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

By SirDarius

posted Oct 25, 2007 - 6:04 AM

"Neelie Kroes European Commissioner for Competition and Microsoft agreed that the royalties payable for the interoperability information will be 10,000 Euros, and that Microsoft can use its EPO software patents to charge 0.4 percent of all the sales of its competitors."

What a racket...
http://press.ffii.org/Pr...rt_paying_MS_patent_tax

Score: 0

By khetos

posted Oct 24, 2007 - 1:05 PM

if i was a developer of a competeing os.. id be scared.. trade secrets are well just that, and no one wants to share their money maker..

if microsoft bends to this, well good luck steve jobs, and apple, and linux, you know that you will have to now conform as well!