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[News] [Rival] Microsoft Still in Trouble in Europe, Blackmail Stories Resurface

  • Subject: [News] [Rival] Microsoft Still in Trouble in Europe, Blackmail Stories Resurface
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:40:43 +0100
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
Europe's not finished with Microsoft

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's troubles in Europe are far from over, as Neelie Kroes, The EU 
| competition commissioner, has warned. We review the past and future options 
| for Microsoft and the European Commission.  
| 
| [...]
| 
| During the US anti-trust trials, Steven McGeady, a vice president of Intel, 
| testified against Microsoft, Intel's most important trading partner, 
| asserting that Microsoft intended to "embrace, extend and extinguish" 
| competition by substituting open standards with proprietary protocols, and 
| claimed that Intel had been warned to cease development of its Native Signal 
| Processing audio and video technology, which promised to vastly improve user 
| experience of the desktop - or else Microsoft would bypass Intel and develop 
| Windows exclusively for AMD and National Semiconductor chips. "It was clear 
| to us that if this chip did not run Windows it would be useless in the 
| marketplace," McGeady testified. "The threat was both credible and 
| terrifying."           
`----

http://www.itpro.co.uk/features/191772/europes-not-finished-with-microsoft.html

Also of interest in Europe:

The Legality of EULAs in The Netherlands

,----[ Quote ]
| According to the anonymous source, the terms of an EULA are the same for all 
| customers, and as such, they legally constitute as 'algemene voorwaarden' 
| (conditions/terms of use). Engelfriet agrees with this position. However, for 
| conditions of use to be valid in The Netherlands, they have to meet certain 
| criteria.    
| 
| The first criterion is that the conditions of use must be presented prior or 
| during the making of the agreement; in case of software bought in retail 
| stores, it would be easy to argue the agreement is made during the actual 
| purchase, which would mean that if an EULA is not presented then, it would be 
| invalid.     
| 
| [...]
| 
| The above means that assuming the distributor points me towards the EULA 
| prior or during the sale, the EULA I agree with by clicking "I agree" is 
| actually a valid contract according to Dutch Contract Law. The distributor 
| can point me towards that EULA in several ways, for instance by including a 
| notice on the box that says "The use of this software is governed by the 
| rules put forth in the EULA. You can find the EULA at [internet address]." 
| another possibility is to print the EULA on the box. The ability to view the 
| EULA at a later date is crucial.        
`----

http://www.osnews.com/story/19682


Recent:

EU: Europarlement testing Ubuntu, OpenOffice and Firefox

,----[ Quote ]
| The European Parliament's IT department is testing the use of GNU/Linux 
| distribution Ubuntu, OpenOffice, Firefox and other Open Source applications, 
| the British MEP James Nicholson explained last week in a letter to Italian 
| MEP Marco Cappato.   
`----

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7565


Is Microsoft Now Banned from EU Contracts?

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=697&blogid=14


Euro MP thinks Microsoft should be banned from government contracts

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/member-eu-parliament-asks


Green MEP says Microsoft should be excluded from EU contract awarding procedure

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/106338/from/rss09


MEPs Question Microsoft's Eligibility for Gov't Projects

,----[ Quote ]
| The Commission, which has not responded yet, is allowed a few weeks to reply.
`----

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144591/meps_question_microsofts_eligibility_for_govt_projects.html


EC probes OOXML standards-setting process

,----[ Quote ]
| A spokesman for the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, told 
| The Register that regulators were continuing to scrutinise interoperability 
| issues related to Microsoft’s products following complaints from the 
| Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) group.   
| 
| As part of that process, the EC formally contacted a number of national 
| standards bodies, including the Norwegian Standards Institute (NSI), 
| requesting more details about possible irregularities in the OOXML 
| standardisation process.   
| 
| [...]
| 
| “It must be stressed that it is not the Commission's intention to influence 
| the outcome of this process, but the Commission considers it essential to 
| ensure that European competition law is not violated in the course of the 
| standard setting process,” he said in an email to El Reg.   
| 
| In January the EC began formal anti-trust probes against Microsoft in two 
| cases where it was alleged that the multinational firm had abused its strong 
| market position. As part of the investigation into the first case, the 
| Commission said that it would scrutinise OOXML on the grounds that the 
| specification doesn't work with those of competitors.    
`----

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/04/ooxml_ec_investigation_iso/


Related:

EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push

,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always 
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter 
| Quinn was by no means unique.  
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252

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