As expected, Microsoft said Tuesday it has appealed a July fine by the European Commission with the Court of First Instance, the European Union’s second highest court. It accuses the EC of prolonging the case while the Redmond company attempted to comply with the ruling. Microsoft vowed to appeal after the EC handed down the 280.5 million euro fine on July 12. Before that ruling, he regulatory body had never fined a company before for failure to comply with an earlier order.
…and then they did.
for a change.
The wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round…
+1 funny
…who wouldn’t appeal?
…who wouldn’t appeal?
I wouldn’t be able to afford the lawyers…
Crush ’em and fine ’em more.
Rumours are the US gov’t approached the EU to try to make them be easy on them. I just hope those are only mean rumours…
What would be wrong with that?
Don’t doubt there are political motives on the EU’s side too.
What would be wrong with that?
What is wrong with our government attempting to interfere with the legal processes in the EU by intervening on behalf of the company that got nailed for the same misbehavior here and in South Korea?
Well, what would be wrong with the South Koreans attempting to get the U.S. to punish MS more severely since the judgements against them aren’t being enforced to the satisfaction of the Korean politicians? If it’s OK for us to do it …
—–
Don’t doubt there are political motives on the EU’s side too.
How about if the EU decides to prosecute MS for abuse of it’s market power at the request of several large U.S. companies? It’s not political and it’s done to benefit American companies and not EU-only interests. Oh, wait, that’s the part you don’t seem to be able to understand correctly. Well, work on that and then get back to us once you figure out what is actually happening.
And the EU would of course NEVER try to speak for a European company if they faces trouble in the US. Not at all.
And you seem to have missed that it is other US companies that have lodged most complaints to EU about MS. I don’t doubt there are European companies that did too, but the big names are mainly US.
Ok and?
This isn’t about “which company made the complaint”. This is about breaking the law.
If an African company or person makes a complaint that an American company is doing something wrong, it’s in the interrest of law and order, and simple “right” to figure it out and if it’s true, make them behave.
The fact that governments lobby for a company is just proving we’re living in a corporatocracy. Governments shouldn’t care much for their companies especialy not in legal actions against them in foreign countries. COMPANIES are NOT humans and DO NOT have RIGHTS.
Only in US perhaps.. but that belongs to the corporatocracy area..
Companies do not have rights?
How could they ever do anything if that was true?
But you’re right about the other point. The governments shouldn’t have powers that make them a good targets for company lobbying.
Edited 2006-10-04 10:18
No companies don’t have rights, not in the law.
They are just forbidden to do certain things and according to the constitution of most todays countries, what is not forbidden is allowed. Companies cannot for example do something which is against the rights of individuals.
Individuals have rights, and also company-people are individuals with their rights, but company as a whole has not got a right to anything, it just has obligations to go within the law.
Eg: there’s no “every company has the right to advertisment” anywhere, but there is “every human has the right to live” in most constitutions.
The difference is quite big actualy… (between a “right” and a “I can do because I’m not forbidden to”)
Ah. Thanks for the clarification.
The fact that governments lobby for a company is just proving we’re living in a corporatocracy. Governments shouldn’t care much for their companies especialy not in legal actions against them in foreign countries. COMPANIES are NOT humans and DO NOT have RIGHTS.
Have you ever seen the documentary “The Corporation” ( http://www.thecorporation.com/index.php?page_id=2 ). If you haven’t you should, it sounds like you would like it.
Sigh
>Well, work on that and then get back to us once you figure out what is actually happening.
I understand and see exactly what is happening. I just happen to disagree philosophically with that viewpoint.
When you call “abuse of power” I call “tough sh*t”. I’d be inclined to agree with you if Microsoft actually held a gun to anyones head and demanded money. Just because people possess weak will power doesn’t give the government or courts the right to interfere unless force or fraud are involved.
Edited 2006-10-04 10:33
Everybody in Europe is running Windows XP N edition. lol
Silly me, I remember now. The bureaucrats still have no idea what they’re doing. Other than running the pony show that is…
>> Everybody in Europe is running Windows XP N edition. lol
Silly me, I remember now. The bureaucrats still have no idea what they’re doing.
Or have they. In München/Munich the “bureaucrats” will be running Debian GNU/Linux.
http://www.muenchen.de/linux
Or have they. In München/Munich the “bureaucrats” will be running Debian GNU/Linux.
To be fair, it’s probably worthwhile to note that Munich incurred substantial cost overruns and delay with their Linux migration.
Everybody in Europe is running Windows XP N edition. lol
*sigh* For the terminally slow:
The EC didn’t force MS to sell the edition without WMP so consumers could buy an OS without a media player.
They did it so that competitors had a fair chance of being the preinstalled media player on Dell’s and other vendors’ systems.
The real problem is that they didn’t force MS to make Windows N cheaper (which they should because MS finances its “free” WMP and “free” IE and “free” Anti-Virus and whatever other “free” stuff they sell to you with the money they make with their Windows monopoly)
Actually they didn’t force MS to sell the Windows XP N edition at all. They asked Microsoft to unbundle WMP from the OS.
Microsoft fulfilled the requirement by creating something nobody would buy. Gotta love Microsoft for this one.