“The European Union fined Microsoft a record $1.3 billion Wednesday for the amount it charges rivals for software information,” Aoife White reports for The Associated Press.
“EU regulators said the company charged ‘unreasonable prices’ until last October to software developers who wanted to make products compatible with the Windows desktop operating system,” White reports. “The fine is the largest ever for a single company and brings to just under $2.5 billion the amount the EU has demanded Microsoft pay in a long-running antitrust dispute.”
“Microsoft immediately said the issues for which it was fined have been resolved and the company was making its products more open,” White reports. “The fine comes less that a week after Microsoft said it would share more information about its products and technology in an effort to make it work better with rivals’ software and meet the demands of antitrust regulators in Europe.”
White reports, “But EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes remained skeptical and said Microsoft was under investigation in two additional cases. ‘Talk is cheap,’ Kroes said. ‘Flouting the rules is expensive.’ Microsoft’s actions have stifled innovation and affected millions of people around the world, Kroes said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Ampar” and “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: It sure is nice to see somebody enforcing laws and punishing Microsoft for illegal activities, isn’t it? It’s too bad that the U.S. let them off the hook with barely a slap on the wrist.
I’ll take the unpopular position on this thread and say this is nonsense. Though I can’t stand M$ or its products, they should be able to charge whatever they want for access to their intellectual property (IP). It may be crappy IP–it is–and the folks who pay for it may be fools–they are–but we’re all better off letting fools give away their money until Apple (or someone else) persuades IT and other purchasers to switch. This is not why I pay my tax dollars. SJ said it well when he pointed out that Apple lost to M$ in the early ’90s when Apple stopped innovating. Now that Apple is innovating again, Macs are steadily gaining market share.
‘Nuff said.
OUCH!!!
And here Microsoft thought they could get out of this by issuing the statement of openness last week. Talk is cheap!
Umm thats nothing to MS. Fines are “fine” with them. They would rather pay them off than submit to real game changing business models. All it does is take some cash out of their pocket temporarily. With a Government approved monopoly, MS will just regenerate this temporarily lost on the back of MS drones and petrified IT managers who don’t want to lose their guaranteed high pay if MS lost its monopolistic power.
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“I’ll take the unpopular position on this thread and say this is nonsense.”
I hope you wore fire retardant undergarments today.
Here’s a WMD. Windows. Must. Die.
@Ampar
Yes! Yes! Yes! I hope your kind of W.M.D. proves real, unlike the other kind.
It’s one thing to gain a monopoly through innovation and mutually beneficial arrangements (like Apple’s iPod – which benefits Apple, consumers, and partners); it’s another to abuse a monopoly to gouge partners because they have no choice (which, in reality, many people and developers don’t). Microsoft has abused its monopoly for two decades and it’s nice to see someone finally taking action against them after the impotent Justice Department failed to stop them 10 years ago.
I believe in capitalism and the free market, but Microsoft has illegally leveraged its monopoly too many times to count.
@Jake
Well, even if the view is unpopular I am in agreement with you. It seems like all you hear from programmers is how many more tools and API MS has for development. There seems to be no dearth of software running on Windows…even if much of it is junk. I would like to know what the EU does with money it collects in fines. Do they have a process to distribute the $1.3B to all the companies they think have been harmed by MS?
If you remember, . . . MS was actually convicted of anti-trust violations in the American courts, but the Bush White House took office during the appeal process, and with their pro-business bent, let them off the hook for their fines. . . . But they were actually convicted, and consequently they are given extra scrutiny by the courts whenever they are accused of legal wrong doings. This was just re-affirmed recently, and the extra scrutiny policy was officially extended for an additional five years. That’s probably why MS has been so bashful about their strong arm methods in recent years. It’s also probably they recently made this remarkable statement that they were going to be more open, . . . in order to preempt the bad publicity about this EU finding.
How come Zune Tang hasn’t commented on this article?
“How come Zune Tang hasn’t commented on this article?”
Because his Automator script got scrambled. You know the one he uses which automatically writes the terms, MAC fanboi’s, crappy Apple, superior Windows, innovative Zune, Your Potential Our Passion, yada yada.
He will be back up and running the moment he re-writes the script.
Thank you for your patience!
oh poor ms
i feel so
no i don’t
BWAHAHAHA
First of all they are now in compliance as of Oct 2007. This fine is for the time from 2004 when the court ruled until Oct 07 when they were not in compliance. Now .. how are they gonna try to buy Yahoo? 😀
“Demanded they pay”… wonder how much Micro$oft has actually paid out in hard cash. I’m assuming it’s nothing… ???
HA, HA.
“How come Zune Tang hasn’t commented on this article?”
He’s busy trying to work out his frustrations with X-Box Live working like a pos. LOL
I’m with Jake and company on this.
Maybe for a different reason.
Apple does many of the same things as M$, if less blatantly and to many fewer people.
I believe that THIS is not one of those “things”, but I’ve seen M$ lose in court before and wondered when they would get around to Apple for the same things. M$ needs to make its money now (grab YOUR money now?) while it can – it’s losing its stand as “the only business in town”. (alleluya) These sorts of activities make it no friends and only help convince coders to consider switching … we need them, too.
<nomex>Dave</nomex>
I also believe in free enterprise and free markets. I am also no fan of MS. I also believe the eurocrats are big-government-for-big-government’s-sake focused and misguided in this decision. And the cash received will only go in their own coffers and not to people / companies adversely affected. However, I also believe this decision still languishes in the realm of mild wrist-slapping. If they were really serious about getting Microsoft’s attention, they would immediately order the mass switching of all eurocratic agencies to Macs and use the MS fine to pay for it.
Funny how even MDN likes the ‘communist’, ‘socialist’ EU when they punish MS.
Do they have a process to distribute the $1.3B to all the companies they think have been harmed by MS?
Just reducing the tax bill is as good recompense as is practically possible. The MS tax is a tax on everyone so everyone should get some recompense. People pay taxes not companies, they just charge their taxes to their customers – included in the price you pay.
Capitalism is not a free market, it takes from some and gives to others. There is no ideal system, there has to be a balance between control by business and control by people (not via our current politicians who are bought and paid for by business). Inevitably it is cyclical and any system must take account of that but by any standard there are many more victims of the capitalist system than there are beneficiaries.
PS look up “East India Company” for a previous example of rampant capitalism gone awry. Business will inevitably try to take over government and form corporatist states under all kinds of monikers and then we start getting close to Godwin’s Law.
Microsoft is a criminal organization that has defrauded hundreds of millions of people, they should not be able to keep a single cent of their ill gotten gains.
What must be understood is the slight difference in market vision between USA and Europe. It is still a matter of making money, of course, but in Europe there is some reluctance to accept totally wild capitalism… Call it a “red” attitude, if you like, but money doesn’t buy up law all around the world.
In the words of that kid from the Simpsons: “Hah hah!”
@ DLMeyer
“Apple does many of the same things as M$, if less blatantly and to many fewer people.”
Care to elaborate?
Apple doesn’t leverage its monopoly to stifle partners or eliminate competition. To say that Apple does the same thing as Microsoft is absolute f%*kery, plain and simple.
it is clear that a lot of people don’t understand what abuse of monopoly power is.
no, Apple does not do the same thing, and no, it is not legal for them to charge whatever they want as a monopoly. Gandalf points out a good bit of history. some people should try to learn from it rather than show that know nothing about systems theory, economies, or power…..
The one and only time Microsoft has ever copied Apple is in the area of overcharging and it appears it will cost them. Hey Redmond, let this be a lesson to you. I hope Microsoft thinks twice about implementing some of Apple’s other ideas like proprietary computers, no support for games and one button phones which can’t connect to Exchange servers.
It ain’t broke, so don’t fix it Microsoft. Keep doing what your doing until the morons in Cupertino have an answer for your marvelous, easy to use innovations and open technologies.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Wow–I’ve never seen a more confused posting in my entire life. Honestly, and I’m no spring chicken!
You seem to actually believe that “capitalism”=prop-corporations=free markets! Nothing could be further from the truth. The only real distinction is between letting markets (i.e., buyers & sellers) determine success and letting government coercion determine it. The examples you cite–corporations seeking “control” and the East India company–are ANTI-market, NOT pro-market. The East India company used a GOVERNMENT-GUARANTEED monopoly to beat out competitors, to the detriment of consumers. It didn’t win its markets by beating out competitors–that’s the whole d*mn point!!
And your bizarre definition of capitalism “it takes from some and gives to others” is actually a very precise definition of how GOVERNMENT works! When government doesn’t favor some businesses over others, the only way that a business sells is when there is a willing buyer! You would be better off no longer using the word “capitalism”–it’s not a real word, just an attempt to smear markets by the individual who came up with it (i.e., Karl Marx, look it up). Again, the issue is markets/freedom vs government/coercion. I won’t even charge you for this little lesson!
Regards,
Jake