Technology & Society
At a time when most people agree that Google or Apple have replaced Microsoft as the tech industry’s top player, government regulators on two continents are going retro, pushing old antitrust arguments. This backward-looking thinking threatens innovation for all companies
From Cnet: The European Union’s second highest court is expected to rule on September 17 whether the European Commission was right in 2004 to find that Microsoft violated antitrust laws, sources familiar with the matter said. September 17 is the
For years, Microsoft has come under heavy fire for not making its systems secure enough. Now, with the upcoming release of its new operating system (OS), Windows Vista, the company is being unfairly attacked by self-interested competitors for adding more
A decade ago, Microsoft thought it could ignore bureaucratic rumblings with little or no fallout. That attitude led to the historic Microsoft antitrust trial and the realization that bureaucrats can indeed wield bigtime impact. Google is now learning a similar
European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes is touring the United States this week. Her visit comes during a nasty spat between the commission and Microsoft that could seriously hurt technology businesses and consumers. Microsoft is planning to launch its new operating
This week, European Commission (EC) regulators fined Microsoft 280.5 million euros (US$356 million), adding to the 497 million euros ($630.7 million) the company has already been forced to pay. Noncompliance with a mandate to disclose technology documents is the official
EU regulators today fined Microsoft 280.5 million Euros ($357 million USD) for supposedly not complying with their demands. Of course, the regulator’s demands are currently in the appeals process and the Commission dragged their heels in making their demands clear,
News reports are saying that EU antitrust authorities plan to recommend that Microsoft pay as much as $2.5 million (USD) in penalties for every day it finds the company failed to disclose information on Windows to competitors. The penalty would
In an unfortunate turn of events, Adobe has threatened an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in Europe. That two American companies may have their fate decided by European bureaucrats is bad enough, but the underlying assumptions make it even worse.The dispute
Today, the WSJ reported that Adobe is threatening an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in Europe because Adobe doesn’t want Microsoft to use PDF in MS Office. So why is Adobe going to Europe? They are both American companies, so it
Below is my summary of last week’s Microsoft hearing at the CFI in Luxembourg. You can read the entire column here. The European Court of First Instance (CFI) buzzed with energy this week as Microsoft and the European Commission squared
On the last day of the MS hearing at the European Court of First Instance, the topic du jour was the record fine the EC charged MS. Not surprisingly, MS wanted the fine dropped and the EC wanted to keep
It’s day 4 of the Microsoft hearing and today the Judges asked some really great questions about interoperability. Judge Cooke, whose Irish accent comes and goes, really cut through the blather on both sides of the argument and got to
Today was day 3 of the Microsoft hearing in Luxembourg and, as I noted in my last post, the focus switched to MS’s intellectual property and whether or not the company should be forced to share it with rivals. When
Yesterday, the CFI wrapped up its examination of the EC’s order to force Microsoft to remove 200 files from Windows to create the wildly unpopular Windows XPN. Now that the Court is done looking at the EC’s attempt to design
Today, everyone at the Court of First Instance noticed something that I think is a really huge difference between this Microsoft hearing and the original trial that occurred in the US. That is, the judges today are VERY familiar with
Today’s hearing at the European Court of First Instance (CFI) focused on the Windows Media Player. Below are some key ideas that came up during the arguments. On RealPlayer: Some groups like ECIS – the European Committee for Interoperable Systems
This afternoon, the European Commission’s (EC) attorney made his case. One of the things he said was that Microsoft put its unbundled version of windows on the market and contrary to their claims, there is no evidence that it is
This morning, Microsoft’s attorney said that the company is under the gun for what he called an “efficiency offense.†That is, because MS kept improving their operating system to work well with media products for the consumer, somehow that is
The Court of First Instance (CFI) just finished its first morning session where the lordships (really – that’s what they call the judges) heard Microsoft attorneys and supporters discuss why the company shouldn’t be forced to remove code from its