Microsoft Accepts European Antitrust Ruling – nytimes.com: Microsoft Corporation agreed today to obey crucial parts of a 2004 antitrust ruling upheld by an appeals court last month, European regulators said today, cutting royalties for rivals and handing information over to open source developers.
Well, with Microsoft handing information to the open source community perhaps it will start to suck less… ;)
The software company said separately that it would not appeal the decision, dropping a challenge of a European Commission order that found it guilty of monopoly abuse three years ago.
Good news I think or maybe it would be better for Microsoft to continue to get fined out the wazoo. I don’t use windows anymore too many supplemental end user License agreements for me. Also vista uses an inappropriate version of sudo for their UAC. 64 bit debian with kde or gnome does everything I ever did on windows and much more!
Wow Europe, you guys are dumb asses. You just gave Microsoft standing to sue your asses off to the tune of a 100 billion dollars in WTO courts. In attempting the bankrupt microsoft you just ruined yourselves.
What were you guys thinking???
Lol!!!
There is now a mandatory 0.4% royalty fee on using Microsoft patents, when licensing those patents was optional before.
Europe sure has a funny definition of victory.
Any time Microbucks acquiesces a little too easily, its time to re-think the situation. These Euro-Idiots have Gates right where he wants them.
I admit to being dense. I have loosley followed this and the US case against Microcrash. Can somebody explain these suits to me in a simple unbiased way. From my perspective, which could be wrong, it looks like a cash grab. Microsoft has made a boat-load of money and these governments want a bigger cut than they already got thru taxes. Since they can’t apply a Microsoft specific tax they turn to the courts to wring more money out of them.
#5
Microsoft has to pay europe like 700 million dollars in tarifs… er I mean penalties.
Microsoft has to sell instructions, er i mean documentation on how to make samba work properly, because it doesnt work properly right now.
Patents that were an optional 6.5% royalty rate are now a mandatory 0.4% royalty rate.
Microsoft has to continue to sell a version of windows that no one wants with out media player built in. They have to provide crapware and malware that any crapware and malware vendors want them to on all versions of windows.
Anyone who complains loud enough and has crappy software can sue microsoft for the failure of their crappy software.
Did I miss anything?
Oh yah, several provisions are expressly illegal under the TRIPS provisions of the WTO charter and microsoft is going to ignore this settlement (except for the patent part) and they are going to sue the EU for about 100 billion dollars for violating their free trade agreements.
#6
Thanks Greg.
Seems like no matter who you like somebody wins, somebody loses.
I was kind of rooting for the Indians over the Sox last night, so since the Sox won I should sue? is that the message here? …no wait the government should sue and make money off the Sox’s success, on my behalf… no wait, the government cashes in on behalf of the Toledo Mud Hens… I think I got a grip on it…
#7,
Hey I have a store right accross the street from 5/3rd field. I love it when the Mud Hens have an extended season, because I cash in on the Mud Hens as well.
Groklaw has a discussion going now:
That is a “good manners” site and PJ (the moderator) will toss your post if she thinks you are out of line or going off on a tangent.
They are paralegals, legal aides, professors, a few lawyers. They’ll analyze this down to the molecular level.
#7
We were in Toledo back in may for the N.A.M.E.S. convention, awsome town! of course we hit Tony Packos!
The problem with saying MS sucks is that all other software sucks just as much.
Illuminati hate MS..
John Dvorak,
If you are reading check out the VMWare and Cisco Merger. What do you suppose they are putting together?
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9801944-1.html
EXONERATED!
GregA,
You’re blowing bubbles out your ass.
MicroSoft has no case against the EU. Only nations may use the WTO.
The EU, as did the American courts, found MS had a monopoly and used to that monopoly to force other rivals out of business. That is why they were forced to change business practices and pay the fine. The fine, BTW, is only $613 million US, not the $700 million you are laughing about.
Locking the barn door after the horses escape, doesn’t really do the consumer much good. The rivals are already toast. The fine isn’t going to bring them back. And probably isn’t going to discourage M$, or any other big corps, much in the future. As for the money, M$ will fight it, but give it up long before giving Open Source the “information” they need to operate on PCes, at least as well as XP does. What O.S. doesn’t need is the info to operate as “fluffy” as XP and Vista does.
Throw the book at’um!