EC fines Microsoft 1.5B US$ ???
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Article[^] "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Free market societies, my foot. You know, if the freaking gov't would stay out of Microsoft's hair, do you think maybe that would actually give competitors an advantage? Isn't a free market supposed to balance unfair pricing? Do ya think? Friggin' idiots. Regulated, controlled, fine-me-if-I'm-too-big "competition policy" is not free market competition. (and yeah, I know this was just posted right below. It was, however, missing a good rant.) Marc
Next Windows Update, all of the Windows boxes in Europe should revert to 'limited-functionality' mode until the E.U. lifts the policy. If the policy isn't removed after 10 days, they wipe their hard drives.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Article[^] "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Free market societies, my foot. You know, if the freaking gov't would stay out of Microsoft's hair, do you think maybe that would actually give competitors an advantage? Isn't a free market supposed to balance unfair pricing? Do ya think? Friggin' idiots. Regulated, controlled, fine-me-if-I'm-too-big "competition policy" is not free market competition. (and yeah, I know this was just posted right below. It was, however, missing a good rant.) Marc
When the web of corruption that is the EU unravels we may find the fine is not unrelated to:- "The timing could hardly be worse for Microsoft which is today launching Windows Server 2008."
'--8<------------------------ Ex Datis: Duncan Jones Merrion Computing Ltd
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Article[^] "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Free market societies, my foot. You know, if the freaking gov't would stay out of Microsoft's hair, do you think maybe that would actually give competitors an advantage? Isn't a free market supposed to balance unfair pricing? Do ya think? Friggin' idiots. Regulated, controlled, fine-me-if-I'm-too-big "competition policy" is not free market competition. (and yeah, I know this was just posted right below. It was, however, missing a good rant.) Marc
You forget that the EU is owned and run by the socialist Franco-German alliance which, for America, means that it is inherently anti-American. 1: The Germans hate you (and us) for beating them in WWII 2: The French can never forgive you (and us) for saving them in WWII. I wouldn't blam MS for ignoring it and telling the EU to Eff Off: see how long they can run the evil empire without Windows.
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You forget that the EU is owned and run by the socialist Franco-German alliance which, for America, means that it is inherently anti-American. 1: The Germans hate you (and us) for beating them in WWII 2: The French can never forgive you (and us) for saving them in WWII. I wouldn't blam MS for ignoring it and telling the EU to Eff Off: see how long they can run the evil empire without Windows.
Slipping into Soapbox isn't it? <sarcasm>It wouldn't have anything to do with the *current* American attitudes towards those countries now would it? :rolleyes: </sarcasm> Didn't a French government office change to Linux already?
"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..." "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."
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Next Windows Update, all of the Windows boxes in Europe should revert to 'limited-functionality' mode until the E.U. lifts the policy. If the policy isn't removed after 10 days, they wipe their hard drives.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Slipping into Soapbox isn't it? <sarcasm>It wouldn't have anything to do with the *current* American attitudes towards those countries now would it? :rolleyes: </sarcasm> Didn't a French government office change to Linux already?
"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..." "There is no one who loves pain itself, who seeks after it and wants to have it, simply because it is pain..."
Richard Jones wrote:
Slipping into Soapbox isn't it?
I have not yet used bad language or called anyone an idiot, so, no.
Richard Jones wrote:
It wouldn't have anything to do with the *current* American attitudes towards those countries now would it?
Probably but they're fundamentally anti-American so no change there then.
Richard Jones wrote:
Didn't a French government office change to Linux already?
Who cares, they're French. <sarcasm_ignored_for_sake_of_retort />
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Sorry Ed, but after all they are your politicians.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Next Windows Update, all of the Windows boxes in Europe should revert to 'limited-functionality' mode until the E.U. lifts the policy. If the policy isn't removed after 10 days, they wipe their hard drives.
Software Zen:
delete this;I've got a stack of Linux distros on my desk at home just waiting for that day.
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Article[^] "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Free market societies, my foot. You know, if the freaking gov't would stay out of Microsoft's hair, do you think maybe that would actually give competitors an advantage? Isn't a free market supposed to balance unfair pricing? Do ya think? Friggin' idiots. Regulated, controlled, fine-me-if-I'm-too-big "competition policy" is not free market competition. (and yeah, I know this was just posted right below. It was, however, missing a good rant.) Marc
The argument against the beast of Redmond is not that they are too big or too profitable but that they used their dominant position in the market to stifle competition unfairly. Without government regulation we'd just have the dirtiest business winning all the time and no doubt those dirty corporations would want to own the governments to pursue their own dark aims. We'd be in a bad place and I for one hope that such a thing doesn't come to pass in Europe.
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Article[^] "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Free market societies, my foot. You know, if the freaking gov't would stay out of Microsoft's hair, do you think maybe that would actually give competitors an advantage? Isn't a free market supposed to balance unfair pricing? Do ya think? Friggin' idiots. Regulated, controlled, fine-me-if-I'm-too-big "competition policy" is not free market competition. (and yeah, I know this was just posted right below. It was, however, missing a good rant.) Marc
As far as I can tell with this one: EU tells MS to license its protocols. It's allowed to charge for them. MS does this and then charges for them. EU tells them they've charged too much and subsequently fines them. How is MS supposed to know in advance what the right price is?
Kevin
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Sorry Ed, but after all they are your politicians.
Software Zen:
delete this;Actually, they're not - we don't get to vote for them!
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Sorry Ed, but after all they are your politicians.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Actually, they're not - we don't get to vote for them!
Sounds like it's time to buy a small cannon* and go into business for yourself... * The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Next Windows Update, all of the Windows boxes in Europe should revert to 'limited-functionality' mode until the E.U. lifts the policy. If the policy isn't removed after 10 days, they wipe their hard drives.
Software Zen:
delete this;I know this is a joke, but just imagine all the lawsuits againg MS if they did that, especially since people paid for full functionality. And that would make things worst, because that would add to the monopoly abuse case.
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The argument against the beast of Redmond is not that they are too big or too profitable but that they used their dominant position in the market to stifle competition unfairly. Without government regulation we'd just have the dirtiest business winning all the time and no doubt those dirty corporations would want to own the governments to pursue their own dark aims. We'd be in a bad place and I for one hope that such a thing doesn't come to pass in Europe.
Russell Jones wrote:
Without government regulation we'd just have the dirtiest business winning all the time
So what you're saying is that we need gov't to impose ethics on corporate behavior. Which, by my thinking, means that the concept of a free market economy does not work, because we're not mature enough to behave in an ethical manner without the cop threatening to hit us over the head with his big stick. And then of course, you get gov't that overcontrols, overregulates, and is itself unethical in its behavior. Walking the razor's edge... Actually, it's more like those chaos attractors, or whatever they're called--they move around from one extreme to another but never actually escape. Seems to me we could do better. :sigh: Marc
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You forget that the EU is owned and run by the socialist Franco-German alliance which, for America, means that it is inherently anti-American. 1: The Germans hate you (and us) for beating them in WWII 2: The French can never forgive you (and us) for saving them in WWII. I wouldn't blam MS for ignoring it and telling the EU to Eff Off: see how long they can run the evil empire without Windows.
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Article[^] "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of E.U. competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," said European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Free market societies, my foot. You know, if the freaking gov't would stay out of Microsoft's hair, do you think maybe that would actually give competitors an advantage? Isn't a free market supposed to balance unfair pricing? Do ya think? Friggin' idiots. Regulated, controlled, fine-me-if-I'm-too-big "competition policy" is not free market competition. (and yeah, I know this was just posted right below. It was, however, missing a good rant.) Marc
Exactly what you said.:cool:
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As far as I can tell with this one: EU tells MS to license its protocols. It's allowed to charge for them. MS does this and then charges for them. EU tells them they've charged too much and subsequently fines them. How is MS supposed to know in advance what the right price is?
Kevin
Anything above GPL would get them fined for over pricing. GPL would get them fined for locking EU ISVs out of using it with their existing applications.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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Russell Jones wrote:
Without government regulation we'd just have the dirtiest business winning all the time
So what you're saying is that we need gov't to impose ethics on corporate behavior. Which, by my thinking, means that the concept of a free market economy does not work, because we're not mature enough to behave in an ethical manner without the cop threatening to hit us over the head with his big stick. And then of course, you get gov't that overcontrols, overregulates, and is itself unethical in its behavior. Walking the razor's edge... Actually, it's more like those chaos attractors, or whatever they're called--they move around from one extreme to another but never actually escape. Seems to me we could do better. :sigh: Marc
I see it like a game of football. The government acts as the referee / umpire and ensures that play happens within the boundaries of the regulations. If people don't like the rules they can go to the games authorities and get them changed. In this case the EU demanded that MS opened up their APIs to competitors so that the playing field was level. MS then chose to release those APIs with a licence that they knew was too restrictive to allow the OSS community to use them. They also knew that once they had released those APIs into the wild they could reasonably argue that people like SAMBA had gained knowledge from their release and could then sue them for breaching the terms of the licence. These were premeditated dirty tricks on a colossal scale, actually using the terms of the initial judgement as a stick to beat the very people the court was trying to protect. I certainly think we need to impose ethics on corporate behaviour. How many people needed to die in the mines or in their early 40s due to mining related illnesses before the government stepped in and produced rules to protect the work force? How many CEOs would happily lay off their previously loyal work force with 1/2 an hours notice if laws weren't in place to prevent them doing so? Corporations and their senior executives are motivated by a lust for money and power and nothing else, it is government's job on behalf of society to inject a level of humanity into the dealings of these behemoths. Of course it could now be argued that the business of politics and of centralised government has become an industry itself and that government ethics have now been reduced to those of the lowest corporations; certainly in the US and UK the government and industry seem to have formed a symbiotic relationship allowing both to feed off the populace that the government supposedly represents. In the MS decision what we are seeing is a government that actually stands up for what it believes in and the corporate world up in arms because the regulatory powers have been far too quiet for far too long and the money machine has grown used to getting it all its own way. I'm rarely very impressed by the actions of the various EU bodies but today I am proud to be a European. Russell