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
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September 28, 2004
Microsoft Weighs Resuming Negotiations With Europe
"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.