On 25 Jul, 00:37, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> ____/ John Locke on Tuesday 24 July 2007 17:34 : \____
>
>
>
> > On Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:25:28 +0100, Roy Schestowitz
> > <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >>Now It's Spain and OOXML - More Standards Highjinks?
>
> >>,----[ Quote ]
> >>| It seems there may have been more games played by Microsoft in the OOXML
> >>| saga, or at the very least some confusion spread, and this time our story
> >>| comes from Spain, where the government of Andalusia has now sent an
> >>| official letter of protest [PDF, Spanish] to the president of the technical
> >>| committee deciding whether or not to accept OOXML as an ISO standard,
> >>| denouncing what it called an attempt by Microsoft to manipulate the process
> >>| by selectively quoting from a letter from the Andalusian government back in
> >>| January as if it were an endorsement of OOXML as an ISO standard today.
> >>| That January letter, Andalusia says, was not intended to indicate that it
> >>| felt there should be an acceptance of OOXML by the technical committee.
> >>`----
>
> >>http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070723235113424
>
> >>There's a lot of Microsoft ugliness at this stage. I'm just trying to catch
> >>up...
>
> > You haven't seen anything yet. Its gonna get real interesting...they're
> > starting to shows signs of the "cornered rat" syndrome.
>
> Nobody likes rats.
>
> Microsoft Faces EU Probe on Word, Excel Dominance, People Say
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, is facing deeper
> | scrutiny from European regulators on whether it is abusing its dominance in
> | word processing and spreadsheets, three people with direct knowledge of the
> | case said.
> `----
>
> http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aR9bHOp5bm3A&refe...
>
> This could get ugly. They won't get away with it, trust me.
Problem is though, they may very well "get away with it". What can
the EU do to Microsoft? Fine them? Their lawyers will whine and
appeal to get the fines reduced, then they'll pay up. They're good at
throwing money at problems til they go away.
Maybe they could ban Microsoft from operating in Europe. That'd be
nice. But their US government paid-friends would agitate and
retaliate... and anyway, Microsoft have sycophantic pals in many
European governments who'd likely prevent the Euro-states from acting
in concert against them.
Microsoft still hold too many cards. But it won't last forever.
Thank Grud.
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