On May 3, 6:49 am, BearItAll <s...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> > EU defers antitrust advice until Microsoft verdict
>
> > ,----[ Quote ]
> > | The Commission decided in 2004 that Microsoft broke EU law by
> > | abusing the dominance of its Windows operating system to muscle
> > | out rivals, fining the company 497 million euros ($678 million)
> > | and demanding changes to its business practices.
> > `----
>
> http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:r...
>
> >http://tinyurl.com/2x2wuq
>
> I wonder what would happen if MS replied to that with
>
> 'As you have found us guilty then clearly it is not possible to sell or
> supply our product in the EU anymore, because we have no intention of
> reducing our product in any way in order to let our competitors take part
> of our market. Also those that we have sold are clearly illegal by your
> ruling. Therefore in order to make ammends we have sent out a code with the
> regular updates that disables all MS products in the EU, i.e. withdraws
> their licence to use our product. This puts us back within the law.
> However, since we are American and not EU citizens then we have no
> intention paying your fine because we are not really subject to your laws,
> so up yours' {thumb on nose, waves fingers}.
>
> It must be tempting if you are Mr MS to do something like that. Well it
> would be tempting for me, you might be a nicer person.
>
> It's all very well saying that people would move to Linux, the problem there
> is what are they going to do on Friday morning after that code to disable
> their OS has been put out over night. The ammount of money lost from
> business and EU MP expenses would be too much, they would probably have no
> choice but to say 'oops sorry'. Which is of cause the lowest of the low for
> any MP.
>
> Anyone can withdraw their licence, we all sign up to that what ever software
> licence we press the agree button on.
And the EU could make an eminent domain ruling and seize anything they
needed for their security, and argument they could well make in such a
situation. Anyone with any MS source code in Europe could be forced to
turn it over, and perhaps it would be open sourced. I'm sure MS would
love that result. Europe would quickly move to make non-MS formats a
required standard, forcing other places that want to do business with
European markets (everywhere) to start using those formats as well.
This would diminish MS's influence everywhere, not just in Europe.
MS, on the other hand would lose. They would lose a large market (the
EU has more people than the US), they would probably lose the ability
to travel to Europe (or risk being jailed for anti-competitive
actions, extortion, et. al.), they would be hanging all of their
European employees out to dry, or worse, and the US market wouldn't
react favorably to this either. Asia would also view such actions with
more than disdain. In short, if MS did this, they would temporarily
inconvenience Europe, but destroy themselves completely in the
process.
As for disabling all MS software, this only works if they can access
the European PCs. Many are behind firewalls and NATs, and have setups
that allow them to run without constant MS contact. The consumer level
machines would be most affected, but most of the large businesses and
government agencies wouldn't be affect to a large degree. I'm sure the
EU would also look the other way regarding hacks and WAREZ that
allowed people to download and run "unlocked" versions as well.
Oh yes, and back in the US, all the MS officials involved would face
the wrath of shareholder lawsuits. There would be no where to run for
the fools. They would not be welcome in the EU, they would be hounded
in the US civil courts, and the rest of the world would view them with
suspicion at best. Their market shrink, many employees even in the US
would lose their jobs, their stock would tank, and their US customers
would have a huge incentive to switch to something else, as the
collapse of MS would become a very real possibility.
In short, it isn't a credible threat.
>
> I know its daft, I don't really mean it. But I can't help feeling that in MS
> Win it would be possible to effectively turn it off from an update, revoke
> the license. It has to be there really doesn't it, because they use that
> WPA thing to disable those they believe to be illegal copies.
IIRC, many of the corporate versions are immune from this. Small
businesses and consumers would be affected, but cracking this process
is fairly simple.
Dean G.
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