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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Newton's Third Law of Motion and Microsoft
  • Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:41:55 -0700

Pushed so long without blasting in the opposite direction, Microsoft thought they had discovered a hole in Newtonion theory.
They were wrong, will walk on their knees hereafter in Europe---lucky they have the opportunity to walk on their knees instead of getting them lopped off entirely as should have happened for their ghastly anti-competitive practices.


The New York Times
------------------------------------------------------------------------


September 28, 2004


Microsoft Weighs Resuming Negotiations With Europe

*By BLOOMBERG NEWS*

By Bloomberg News

The Microsoft Corporation <http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=MSFT>, the world's largest software maker, said yesterday that it might restart settlement talks with European Union regulators after Europe's second-highest court ruled on whether penalties should be suspended.

"We recognize that people have issues that they want to see addressed and we are prepared to address them," Microsoft's general counsel, Bradford L. Smith, told reporters yesterday in Brussels. "We recognize that these issues are best addressed through face-to-face discussions."

The European Commission, the regulatory arm of the 25-member union, ruled in March that Microsoft routinely abused the dominance of Windows, the operating system, in more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers.

It levied a record fine of 497 million euros ($610 million) and required Microsoft to license information to competitors and to offer a version of its operating system without video and music players.

Bo Vesterdorf, the president of the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, is to decide whether to suspend the commission's order until a ruling is made on an appeal by Microsoft. Hearings are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, with a decision expected within two months.

Talks between Microsoft's chief executive, Steven A. Ballmer, and the European Union's competition commissioner, Mario Monti, broke off less than a week before the union's ruling on March 24. Regulators cut off negotiations because the company would not agree that the decision on the media player would act as a precedent in future reviews of its behavior.

Microsoft settled an American antitrust case in 2001. The European decision drew criticism from the Senate majority leader, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, who said it undermined the American accord.

To win a suspension, which Microsoft has said is vital, the company must demonstrate to the court that the commission's order would cause irreparable damage.

If Microsoft wins the suspension, it can avoid complying with the commission's orders until the court rules on the merits of the antitrust case, which may take two years or more.

Competitors have argued that Microsoft unfairly withholds software protocols that are needed by smaller, so-called workgroup servers running Windows. The commission agreed and ordered Microsoft to start licensing its server-to-server protocols.


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  • [Homestead] Newton's Third Law of Motion and Microsoft, Tvoivozhd, 09/28/2004

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