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[News] Microsoft OOXML Under New Fire in Europe, Can be Excluded

Eurocrats study Microsoft OOXML under procurement rules

,----[ Quote ]
| THE EUROPEAN Commission has started investigating Microsoft's OOXML standard 
| under procurement rules instead of the old competition statute with which 
| they usually bash the software giant.  
| 
| The Danish Unix User Group (DKUUG) complained to the EC's competition 
| regulators in February about a Danish government mandate on the use of 
| software standards. But the Competition lot didn't want to know about it.  
| 
| The European Commission confirmed today that its Internal Market people had 
| taken up the complaint. They were examining it to see if it constituted an 
| infringement of procurement rules.  
| 
| [...]
| 
| It was based, as originally, on the idea that Ecma International, the 
| standards body that backed OOXML, had specified that the standard was to be 
| implemented "in a way that is fully compatible with the large existing 
| investments in Microsoft Office documents."   
| 
| This meant that it was designed to give Microsoft documents an advantage, 
| said, Simonsen, in the same way a television manufacturer might have an 
| advantage over its rivals if had designed a signal that was tuned to operate 
| special features on its own sets.   
| 
| The EC's procurement police are now considering whether this puts the Danish 
| government in breach of procurement rules, despite the moves Microsoft has 
| made to make its standard acceptable.  
`----

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/24/eurocrats-study-microsoft-ooxml

Unless Microsoft quickly supports ODF, Microsoft Office could get shunned just
like OOXML, which *is* just  Microsoft Office.


Recent:

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/


BE, NL: governments will not use ISO OOXML

,----[ Quote ]
| Asked to comment on last week's ISO approval for OOXML, Fedict's chief IT 
| architect, Peter Strickx, said: "There will have to be multiple 
| implementations, in order for us not to become dependent on a single vendor. 
| It will also have to be compatible with open standards that we already use, 
| in this case Open Document Format ODF."    
`----

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7562


DE: German Foreign Ministry will not use ISO OOXML

,----[ Quote ]
| In the weeks prior to the second round of votes last September, 
| irregularities were reported in the standard committees in many participating 
| countries. These claims  continued until after the final discussion, in 
| February and March this year.   
| 
| The European Commission has started an investigation into the allegations. 
| The Commission sent a letter to all EU national standards committees in 
| Europe, requesting information about the process. Sources at the Commission 
| declined to comment, as the investigation is on-going and no official 
| position has yet been adopted.    
`----

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7561


Software wars

,----[ Quote ]
| Allegations of committee-stuffing, the outcome of votes overridden by 
| political appointees, a final decision that many involved consider tainted: 
| this may sound like a discredited election in some third world country. But 
| it is actually a description of an ugly fight over international technical 
| standards that wrapped up this week. Microsoft came out on top, but at the 
| cost of tarnishing its reputation and the credibility of an important 
| back-room process that oils the wheels of many global industries.      
`----

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fc9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerworlduk.com%2Ftool


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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