__/ [ B Gruff ] on Wednesday 23 August 2006 15:59 \__
> On Wednesday 23 August 2006 16:31 Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> S. Korea to Get New Versions of Windows
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Earlier this year, the Korea Fair Trade Commission fined Microsoft
>> | 32.5 billion won ($34 million) and ordered it to provide two separate
>> | versions of Windows, saying the company abused its dominant market
>> | position by tying certain software to its Windows operating system.
>> |
>> | [...]
>> |
>> | Microsoft is engaged in a similar case in Europe.
>> `----
>>
>> http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060823/skorea_microsoft.html?.v=2
>
> They will not sell more than a dozen, of course, because the price will be
> the same.
> However, the message is loud and clear, "You don't do another Netscape by a
> some future date telling us that your bundled stuff is An Intrinsic Part of
> the OS"!
>
> - oh, and so much for their suggestion that they might need to cease
> trading there:-)
I think this serves as an important legal precedence for other countries that
feel similarly about this issue. This includes the EU. You could now make
the case that if Korea won the case, so could you.
The days of extending a monopoly by prebundling software on a CD (or a DVD in
the case of Vista, or Internet updates, as in the case with WGA and IE7,
which are 'high priority' updates) are over. They are at least reaching an
end. And just wait until all those Windows Live links in Vista stir up a
commotion. No wonder Microsoft deletes employee E-mails after just 6
months... the company, whose founder abandons, has become afraid of
antitrust, as one high-status article recently argued.
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