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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