Microsoft Won't Appeal EU Ruling 188
Ec|ipse writes "Microsoft has decided not to appeal the European court order to implement antitrust sanctions, Instead, Microsoft hopes to win their main appeal that they (Microsoft) had abused their software dominance."
Heh (Score:5, Funny)
Headline (Score:1)
Either that or: Microsoft hopes to win their main appeal against the ruling that they (Microsoft) had abused their software dominance.
Re:Headline (Score:2)
Re:Heh (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Heh (Score:2)
For example, prior to Firefox's release and initial succes. Microsoft was going to use a patched version of IE 6 in longhorn. After firefox they finally decided on making an IE 7.
I just hope this time it can be removed.
Re:Heh (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't doubt that regardless of Firefox's emergence as a hotshot browser, Microsoft would not have been providing a browser in Longhorn with particularly new or innovative functionality, but it'd be odd for the marketing droids to allow IE to retain the "IE 6" moniker. Instead, I'd expect it to be named "IE NG" (next-generation) or something similar, after they'd revamped it with an Avalon interface (or something)?
You know it, but there's prolly a little bit more (Score:2)
They might add a few more "security" warnings, internet zones, even more craptastic cookie management informing you with a big, undisableable "Ok" that a cookie has been blocked. Oh, with a "don't show me this warning again" for a per cookie basis just for the kicks of it.
All useless features that does make the browser appear safer, better and whatever, but still doesn't adress any of the many fundamental flaws or exploits.
And whatever it does, it will regularly inform you that you are surfing "safer
Re:Heh (Score:2)
Re:Heh (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Heh (Score:3, Interesting)
No, if it saves them market share. It should be pretty obvious by now they don't care what you think of them, as long as you continue to "need" their software and no markets are closed off to them. They fight tooth and nail when a market is open to more competition for them or if they have to limit the bundling of their software. But patent and monopoly abuse cases are just settled, saving them money.
Re:Heh (Score:3, Insightful)
More to the point, it costs them less to pay legal fees and fines than it would cost them to "play fair." I don't think any legal system moves fast enough to make the cost of non-compliance more expensive to Microsoft than the cost of compliance; hence, they'll continue to play these legal games.
Re:Heh (Score:2)
Their lawyers may also have had difficulty finding grounds for appeal which didn't attack the original ruling. I would't read much into this.
Re:Heh (Score:3, Funny)
Like maybe a military campaign? I can almost picture Gates rubbing his hands together in Redmond and going, "Sure, I'll let you win this round, Europe" before launching his full-scale invasion of Europe.
Of course, the winter assault on Moscow will be his undoing.
Re:Heh (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Heh (Score:2)
Software patents ... (Score:2)
fine, Microsoft improves their image in Europe,
making way for the REAL END-RUN around F/OSS.
MSFT will spread enough "love" around the EU MPs
to make EU software patents happen, at which
point they can tie all F/OSS development up
in lawsuits. MSFT is just spending their "love"
wisely.
Re:Heh (Score:2)
Re:Heh (Score:2, Funny)
Why media player? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Why media player? (Score:1)
Re:Why media player? (Score:2, Insightful)
These three are just security holes.
Re:Why media player? (Score:5, Interesting)
These three are just security holes.
They are just three SYMPTOMS of one security hole and that security hole is called ActiveX. If Microsoft was REAL serious about security in Longhorn, ActiveX would be rewritten with security in mind. Anything that is "ActiveX aware" can reformat your hard drive and more. These things include MS Office, IE, Outlook Express, Outlook, WMP, and the list goes on. COM/OLE objects are great but having a web site be able to run/install a com object onto a machine from IE is INSANE!!!! Somebody at Microsoft should have asked "what is to stop someone from abusing this technology?" and then decided not to implement it because they did not have a good answer to that question. If it was not for the lack of security in ActiveX technologies, MS security would not be so abismally shoddy.
Re:Why media player? (Score:2, Insightful)
Their attempt at owning media formats. (Score:2)
With WMP, they aren't screwing with open formats, just pushing th
Re:Their attempt at owning media formats. (Score:2)
It's a shame (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft are criminals. Nobody should be doing business with them.
Re:It's a shame (Score:2)
But then, what do I care anymore, I just moved to the Mac.
Re:It's a shame (Score:2)
Love, Big Blue.
Re:It's a shame (Score:5, Interesting)
IBM is no longer the monopolist it once was, in large part because of the punishment they suffered for abusing their position. I don't think you could say the same of Microsoft. And I'm sure that Bill can accumulate the amount of the fine by simply going through the couches at his mansion.
We could take a page from their marketing department though. Linus should announce a huge list of features for the 2.7/2.8 kernel series. If they don't all make it in, he can just announce that they've just been "delayed" until the "Linux Longhorn" release in 2020. Heh heh heh...
Re:It's a shame (Score:2)
MicroSoft (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, most probably (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nah, most probably (Score:2)
Re:Nah, most probably (Score:2)
Anything which isn't directly related to doing that e.g. writing pointless circulars announcing great new initiative #18472, spending time telling us all how it great it is to cruise around in the company yacht and telling us our wages will be frozen for year because of a lack of money ( which curiosily doesn't a
Re:Nah, most probably (Score:3, Interesting)
So let me get this straight... (Score:3, Funny)
Microsoft will accept the penalty incurred under the anti-trust ruling, but will still appeal the foundation ruling in general?
I'm glad IANAL.
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:2)
That's right. But it seems to me that by accepting the penalty, they're telling the court that they agree with the original ruling to a small extent - thus validating it. I can't imagine this not being used against them in some way.
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:2)
IF they were guilty, they would have no problem with that punishment. But since they're not (as far as they're concerned), they're gonna fight the ruling that says they are, and not the punishment itself.
Basically its saying "yes, the punishment fits the crime... but we're not guilty of the crime"
Re:So let me get this straight... (Score:2)
And this would be the point where the jury's head explodes? ;-)
WTF? (Score:1, Interesting)
Damn, good sportsmanship, of all the low-down-sneaky tactics. Without Microsoft's Euro antics what are we supposed to discuss!!! Gotta dig for more dirt on other things, maybe run that article about Will Eisner dying or something, man, this really cuts into /. material...
So, what issues are they not appealing? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm no expert in the EU legal system, so I could be out to lunch here, but I don't think an appeal is just another chance to duke it out. Usually there have to be specific issues preserved and reopened on appeal, and I can't think of what those issues would be in such a decision. Does anyone know what their grounds for appeal would have been? The law student in me is deathly curious.
Hadn't? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:API's (Score:1)
Guess what, dude, it cost millions of dollars (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This goes from the bottom, man (Score:2)
Re:Guess what, dude, it cost millions of dollars (Score:2)
Re:Guess what, dude, it cost millions of dollars (Score:3, Informative)
How about 'they've been found guilty of criminal activity and have been ordered by the court [theregister.co.uk] to do so in partial restitution'?
*eyebrow raising* (Score:4, Interesting)
It would be nice to see them have to strip WMP and IE out of Windows, or at least preload Firefox and Opera on Windows along with IE. My friend just recently was ranting about "WHY in GODS NAME do I need to have Windows Media Player EMBEDDED into my server??"*
*Disclaimer: I've never used any Windows based servers, and I haven't used Windows period since 1999, so I don't know if you can pull WMP out or anything.
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:5, Insightful)
Take WMP for instance. It is really just a front end to the Windows Media API. Funny thing is, to install this arguably essential component of windows, Media PLayer comes with the package. They also do this for MAPI... thats why you get Outlook Express.
In a nutshell, Windows started out as a bunch of tech demos for the underlying technology. Now Microsoft is developing the "Proof of concept" mini-apps into full fledged applications.
P.S. Before the grammar nzi's strike, I do know that my spelling and grammar have a lot to be desired.
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:3, Funny)
You mean that your spelling and grammar leave a lot to be desired.
*duck*
Great Idea Except... (Score:3, Interesting)
But that is an extreme case. In a more practical setup, why does Microsoft get the say on installing any software like WMP on my grandmother's machine? As you noted, because the way Microsoft has developed the technology installing one piece of technology to solve a prob
Re:Great Idea Except... (Score:2)
The crux is whether you consider MS to be a monopoly with no alternatives.
If you say "Yes, there is no alternative", then morally, and legally, Microsoft can't behave the way that they do. Their OS is also the people's OS, and by making the OS unfair, it harms the people, so laws apply for the protection of the people.
If you say, "No, there is no alternative", then morally, and legally, MS can do whatever they want. It's their OS, if they install
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:2)
Same in Unix ? (Score:2)
Like what ?
- On my desktop machine I mostly use SuSE.
Multimedia userinterface / multimedia handling libraries / rest of system are completly independent.
You're not forced to install Xine's userinterface, you can only install Xine's libraries if you like (and if fact the default "Desktop"-profile installation does it, and use another UI : Kaffeine).
- You can even install only base system without
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:2)
It's "grammar Nazis", not "grammar nzi's."
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:2)
And this explains why all the various items which compiled the libpbm handling libraries have needed to be patched over the past few weeks? I mean, tetex needs a fix because of a bug in the JPEG handling code in libpbm?
You may complain about DLL Hell, but the "Oh, shit, I've got to patch that one, too?" hell that Linux sysadmins have been in recently is every bit as bad!
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:2)
Not a pretty picture, either way. (Grumble grumble off to patch a server at home...)
Just an FYI: (Score:2)
dpkg said it couldn't install it because of dependency issues
on the next run of apt it said theier was a package not completely installed and told me to run apt-get -f install
on doing so apt happilly installed the original lazarus package and all the dependencies it needed!
To the average user, this IS dependency hell. Sure, perhaps not as bad as it used to be, but that doesn't mean it's easy. And it's still someth
Re:Just an FYI: (Score:2)
Almost any way of doing things has advantages and disadvantages. The question is, do Windows way of doing things have a better advantage/disadvantage ratio than the Linux way ?
One important thing about Wind
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:2, Funny)
Clippy: "It looks like SQL Server is dying and NTFS is corrupting as we speak. Would you like to watch a video to see how to press ctrl+alt+del and pray to God that your machine can still boot?"
Re:*eyebrow raising* (Score:2)
If not, I think the thing up the sleeve will be:
Microsoft Price List 2005
Windows XP for OEMs (with Media Player): £59.99
Windows XP for OEMs (without Media Player): £64.99
Either that or something equally effective like they won't allow bulk discounts on the version without media player.
Who get the $$$ from the fine? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who get the $$$ from the fine? (Score:2)
To me it looks like a rather indirect form of taxing the European population, unless we really think Microsoft is just going to take a chunk out of profits.
Re:Who get the $$$ from the fine? (Score:2)
Re:Who get the $$$ from the fine? (Score:2)
Re:Who get the $$$ from the fine? (Score:2)
I love tsunami's like the next guy, but if this money goes to tsunami victims, I'll be moving to Thailand.
Sidebar re overrated (Score:2)
Hmmn, I reserve that for posts whih have high scores, but contain factual errors credibly corrected in subsequent posts.
--dave
Not a major drag (Score:3, Interesting)
It will be interesting to see how many people choose to install WMP.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not a major drag (Score:2)
Re:Not a major drag (Score:2)
Of course, nobody said using WMV to encode *anything* was a good idea in the first place, because there are more portable DRM free formats.
Re:Not a major drag (Score:2)
Software dominance? (Score:3, Insightful)
Their "dominance" will wither away, and quickly, if they don't start doing something about security issues.
Then what will they do? Sue customers for running away?
Re:Software dominance? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's like saying the U.S. is going to start to lose population quickly if they don't do something about their Medical Care or Foreign Policy. Sure Canada might have a lower crime rate and better medical care, but people just aren't willing to move away from a life that is warm, familiar, easy, etc.
No matter what happens to windows, users will probably never switch, and certainly not "Quickly" (speaking in terms of a percentage)
Re:Software dominance? (Score:3, Interesting)
The dominance will stay for a while, but MS won't have large revenues either. Most people won't switch to *nix from windows just like that, BUT most people won't buy a new version of windows neither. That's why you see those weird statistics about win98 being still there in the top. Although, when these systems DO get really outdated (with hardware changes), most users WILL consider switching to linux if they know about it rather than buying windows
Re:Software dominance? (Score:2)
Why is some unix the alternative? There's a popular and commercial and well-supported platform out there for the home user. Its called a Mac. I swear, reading some of these posts its like linux is the spoiler third-party candidate.
1. Install some linux on ma's computer.
2. Ma gets all confused with the command line and is sick of the lack of commercial apps and decides windows is the way to be and switches back.
3. MS wins.
Buy Ma a Mac and chances are that
Re:Software dominance? (Score:2)
Media Player link (Score:3, Funny)
OT but still... (Score:2)
You know what sucks? When a machine is used to visit a site that installs a trojan via ActiveX controls, and your virus software can't remove it, so you clean it up as best you can by hand and you install FireFox to prevent it from happening again, and make it the default web browser so all your other applications won't use IE, then you figure you should make sure you have the latest security updates for Windows and you click on the "Windows Update" link and -- it launches IE to connect! Fresh
No, no. Business as usual... (Score:3, Informative)
So if it wins here, will sanctions eventually be dropped? It's just manoeuvring by MS surely.
Re:No, no. Business as usual... (Score:2)
Yes, MS is being shifty, because they claim they have "already provided data to competitors" regarding their API's and so on (part of the immediate remedy), but I'm not sure if the samba guys are getting any benefit, and assuredly they are the ones who stand to gain the most. The full disclosure of windows APIs would be incredibly useful for someone writing interoperability code. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please!
Congratulations Europe! (Score:2, Insightful)
A good move by MS (Score:4, Interesting)
I am in no way condoning or approving MS business tactics. I am only judging the merits of the effectiveness of such strategies.
My own perspective is that a music/video utility should be bundled with all OS's but that WMP is evil because it is being used to promote Microsoft's proprietary sound and video formats. MS is again relying on thier tried and true tactics of "embrace and extend".
But since the EU "picked up" on this theme it is bettor for MS to be a little more "low key" with this strategy than be arogant about it. It seems MS is grown a little wiser since the AntiTrust trial in the USA (despite winning it).
Re:A good move by MS (Score:2)
You may have hit on an idea there.
What if the version without media player still installs WMP, but disables the frontend? Then the "download" could simply enable WMP. Small, fast download, effortless and safe integration - and it doesn't affect any third party software which hooks into the media player APIs.
What they should do... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What they should do... (Score:2)
Re:What they should do... (Score:2)
There should be some text editor, as a text editor is a vital component of any OS.
As strange as it sounds, I can't imagine going back to a time when an OS couldn't have you browsing the internet immediately after installation. Most Linux distr
They WILL appeal.(No one read the article, right?) (Score:3, Informative)
Yet, the article states very clearly: "Microsoft said it would continue to appeal the Commission's landmark ruling".
The only thing they won't appeal is the court order to "immediately implement antitrust sanctions".
This only means they will not appeal the ruling that says "you need to implement this NOW", which is in fact a ruling to the appeal they made to the main sanctions (sorry for getting complicated).
Appealing this "NOW!" ruling would not make any difference for the "NOW!" part, and it will not make any difference for the damages Microsoft will claim for the main case. And as there are no extra damages to the NOW! part, there's nothing to do here - which is exactly what Yahoo says.
GREAT! way is paved for "Exchange replacement" (Score:2)
so does anyone know _how_ i can ask for specification documents and IDL files for the Exchange network interfaces?
Hmmm. (Score:2)
So, i imagine a scenario like this:
Europe: Give us a version of windows without WMP!
Microsoft: OK. [takes a copy of windows, rips out WMP and hands the remains, bleeding and dripping entrails of unimplemented APIs to Europe]
Europe: But, this is a piece of shit!
Microsoft: Yep. Told you it would be.
Level Playing Field After Cliff (Score:2)
Software markets develop quickly compared to the time scales that govern the legal system.
Consequently, a Windows XP without an embedded Microsoft media player practically becomes an inconvenience to users accustomed to it being there.
While intended to provide a level playing field for all competitors that can provide media player technology, all the EU ruling does is to level a playing field too late, with only one player left on the field, after the near-vertical playing field has caused all lesser com
Re:What a Freakin' Waste of Time! (Score:3, Informative)
By opening competition in the media player market. Most users would be too lazy to search for and install the superior media player if one is already bundled (integrated?) into Windows. I think that it would be pretty cool if Microsoft sold Windows, and users could choose to insall any "distro" they want, or a custom one, rather than just IE + WMP + MSOffice.
I thought the point of breaking up the "Microsoft Monopoly" was so that peo
Re:What a Freakin' Waste of Time! (Score:2)
Re:This is about EU vs US (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:am i missing something? (Score:2, Informative)
I haven't tried the same with Windows Media Player, but I doubt it can be fully removed either.
Re:am i missing something? (Score:2)
Re:but what about people without the interweb (Score:2)
iTunes, KaZaa and BitTorrent are not the only ways to obtain media...