Microsoft has decided not to appeal last month's appeal ruling against it from the Court of First Instance (CFI) and has finally agreed to comply with the European Commission's 2004 antitrust ruling that sparked the company's appeal. The decision to accept the CFI's ruling will dispel any lingering uncertainty facing software and hardware developers over how to plan future product development.
"We will not appeal the CFI's decision to the European Court of Justice and will continue to work closely with the Commission and the industry to ensure a flourishing and competitive environment for information technology in Europe and around the world," the company said in a statement Monday. Last month the Luxembourg-based CFI threw out Microsoft's appeal, siding with the Commission on the two essential elements in the antitrust case: Microsoft's failure to share necessary interoperability information about its Windows operating system with rivals and its strategy of tying its media player to Windows to the detriment of rival players.
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News source: InfoWorld
"We will not appeal the CFI's decision to the European Court of Justice and will continue to work closely with the Commission and the industry to ensure a flourishing and competitive environment for information technology in Europe and around the world," the company said in a statement Monday. Last month the Luxembourg-based CFI threw out Microsoft's appeal, siding with the Commission on the two essential elements in the antitrust case: Microsoft's failure to share necessary interoperability information about its Windows operating system with rivals and its strategy of tying its media player to Windows to the detriment of rival players.
View: The full story News source: InfoWorld
It sounds like we will need to wait for a review of the new terms of agreement.
Novell was the dominant player, so Microsoft
- launches Open Standard effort around the Common Internet File System
- gains foothold in the market
- stops participating in standardization
- modifies protocol, claims "Intellectual Property Rights"
- locks Novell out of the client by cryptography
- pushes desktop monopoly to server
Result: EU antitrust case.Last edited by tiagosilva29 on 23 Oct 2007 - 19:24
Are Microsoft now complying will all the 2004 rulings? (... by the way, what were they!
I think the "playing field" is starting to level, what with the general disenchantment of Vista, (and it's lateness). Linux desktops are "coming of age", we just need to see open and continuing network interoperability between systems. Microsoft's dominance, now, and in the near will be challenged by rapidly maturing, open source solutions. The whole model of "personal computing" is changing (thank goodness! ). Microsoft are beginning to come to terms with this, though they have been, and still are their own worst enemy!
There is nothing proving that Microsoft's bundling is any more "detrimental" to competing media players than Apple's bundling. Yet, only Microsoft is being punished? If anything, Apple's nice iPod to iTunes lock-down makes their media player bundle more threatening to competing software than Windows + Media Player.
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