Lawyer of the Week: Thomas Vinje
,----[ Quote ]
| The Clifford Chance partner who acted in support of the EC's ruling that
| Microsoft had abused its dominance
`----
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2567125.ece
Microsoft Mum on Plans for EU Appeal
,----[ Quote ]
| The Sept. 17 ruling by the EU's Court of First Instance means "there is a
| clear set of guidance for us, and we move on in that environment," he told
| lawmakers.
`----
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hnAzQ2u98jx5lz4YIKKlqFw3noLgD8S1943G0
Microsoft Keeps Options Open on EU Case
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/071002/france_microsoft.html?.v=1
Naked PCs, structural remedies, and open protocols may be on the way.
Related:
Users split over naked PCs
,----[ Quote ]
| The high cost to business of having Windows pre-installed on PCs was
| certainly an issue for ZDNet.co.uk's sister site silicon.com's CIO Jury.
| Three-quarters of the jury backed calls for naked PCs, not only to foster
| diversity in operating systems but also to bring down costs.
|
| On the business side, several reader comments point to the fact many
| companies do not use pre-installed operating systems but rather choose to
| install a "standard image" on each machine. By starting from a naked PC,
| businesses would at least save time (due to not having to delete the existing
| installation), if not cash too, they said.
`----
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39289744,00.htm?r=2
A free market for free software
,----[ Quote ]
| Retailers then have the option of selling a naked PC with no operating
| system, or one with a free operating system, at a discounted price. The
| technology exists to create a European-wide image-distribution system that
| could put any operating system onto any PC at retail, in moments. A sensible
| retailer would keep up with demand by maintaining a small stock of
| ready-to-sell PCs with the operating system of the moment: not an onerous
| requirement. That system could be paid for by the Microsoft fine, and it
| would be open to any operating system whose licence allowed unrestricted
| copying.
|
| There are many benefits to this approach. OEMs and operating-system writers
| will be motivated to keep their images up-to-date with security patches and
| features, minimising their own infrastructure expenses, and it would be an
| interesting new channel to the users. Even Microsoft would be free to join,
| when it produces a free version of Windows. Now that's a real free market.
`----
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/leader/0,1000002982,39289612,00.htm?r=5
Unbundling Microsoft Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| Computers in the European Union should be sold without a bundled operating
| system, according to this submission to the European Commission. It says that
| the bundling of Microsoft Windows with computers is not in the public
| interest, and prevents meaningful competition in the operating system market.
`----
http://www.globalisation.eu/briefings/competition-policy/unbundling-microsoft-windows-200709231241/
Free-market think tank urges EU to unbundle Windows
,----[ Quote ]
| The Globalisation Institute, a European think-tank run by free market
| advocates, today went on the offensive against Microsoft, calling on the EU
| to require all PCs to be sold without operating systems.
`----
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2007/09/24/globalisation_institute_windows_bundling/
Ruling: Acer must refund purchase price of preinstalled software that is not
being used
,----[ Quote ]
| In France the "Groupe de travail Détaxe" of the "Association Francophone des
| Utilisateurs de Linux et des Logiciels Libres" (AFUL) [Association of
| French-speaking users of Linux and free software] is one of a number of
| groups calling for an end to what it terms the "OEM tax." In reports
| published in France it says that the case now made public was not the first
| of its kind and that there are indications that in similar court cases where
| decisions are still pending these could in the end be similar to the one just
| published. Since this summer the AFUL campaign by the name of Non aux
| racketiciels is also being supported by the Linux distributor
| Mandriva. "Racketiciel" is composed of "racket" as in English and the
| ending "iciels" taken from "logiciel," the French word for software.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/96581
French consumer group attacks PC software bundling
,----[ Quote ]
| UFC-Que Choisir legal officer Sandra Wouhling said current
| practice effectively forced ordinary consumers to buy computers
| using Microsoft operating systems whereas companies anda
| dministrations were offered a real choice.
`----
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20061214:MTFH94365_2006-12-14_14-49-22_L14537403&type=comktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/yf7kfu
Red Hat tells EU to sock it to Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Monday’s Microsoft ruling is good news for open source and proprietary
| vendors alike. But Michael Cunningham, executive vice president and general
| councel at Red Hat, believes the European Commission shouldn’t let up the
| pressure on the Redmond giant.
`----
http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2007/09/red_hat_tells_e.html
Red Hat’s Szulik comments on EU vs. Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Red Hat dropped me a note this morning in response to the European’s
| Commission’s smack down of Microsoft. I don’t know if Red Hat CEO Matthew
| Szulik was toasting champagne while he fired off this response, but it would
| have totally made sense if he was.
`----
http://enterpriselinuxlog.blogs.techtarget.com/2007/09/17/red-hats-szulik-comments-on-eu-vs-microsoft/
Red Hat Advocates True Interoperability and Competition
,----[ Quote ]
| "Microsoft continues to deny open source providers access to and use of the
| interoperability information that now clearly must be provided. Red Hat
| strongly encourages the Commission to take the steps required to assure rapid
| implementation of a remedy that gives broad and equitable access to Microsoft
| interoperability information to all competitors, including open source
| providers. Red Hat firmly believes that competition, not questionable patent
| and trade secret claims, drives innovation and creates greater consumer
| value," said Michael Cunningham, Executive Vice President and General Counsel
| at Red Hat.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070918/20070918005511.html?.v=1
Microsoft Must Share Code With Rivals
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft lost its appeal of a European antitrust order Monday that obliges
| the technology giant to share communications code with rivals...
`----
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070917/D8RN77CG0.html
Halloween Memo I Confirmed and Microsoft's History on Standards
,----[ Quote ]
| By the way, if you are by any chance trying to figure out Microsoft's policy
| toward standards, particularly in the context of ODF-EOXML, that same
| Microsoft page is revelatory, Microsoft's answer to what the memo meant when
| it said that Microsoft could extend standard protocols so as to deny
| Linux "entry into the market":
|
| Q: The first document talked about extending standard protocols as a way
| to "deny OSS projects entry into the market." What does this mean?
|
| A: To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard
| protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to deliver
| advanced functionality to users. An example of this is adding
| transactional support for DTC over HTTP. This would be a value-add and
| would in no way break the standard or undermine the concept of standards,
| of which Microsoft is a significant supporter. Yet it would allow us to
| solve a class of problems in value chain integration for our Web-based
| customers that are not solved by any public standard today. Microsoft
| recognizes that customers are not served by implementations that are
| different without adding value; we therefore support standards as the
| foundation on which further innovation can be based.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070127202224445
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