EU, Microsoft clash over Vista security features
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The European Union's top competition   regulator clashed with Microsoft on Tuesday over security   upgrades in the U.S. software giant's new Windows Vista   operating system in a re-run of past antitrust battles.
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Microsoft MSFT.O said on Thursday it   remained on track to launch its Windows Vista operating system   in Europe in January but again asked the European Commission to   detail concerns it may have with the software.
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(InfoWorld) - Four European Parliament members warned the European Commission that its actions toward Microsoft could endanger the competitiveness of European businesses by delaying the release of Vista, Microsoft's next operating system. In a strongly worded letter submitted Thursday to Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the legislators said Microsoft regards the E.U.'s regulatory actions as a "risk factor." Microsoft used the terminology in its annual report filed Aug. 25 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). "This effectively means that the Commission's actions are endangering the ability of European business to compete globally," the legislators wrote. The letter is signed by U.K. representatives Chris Heaton-Harris, Sharon Bowles and Peter Skinner, plus Michal Kaminski of Poland. Microsoft wrote in the SEC filing that its ongoing appeal of European Commission's March 2004 antitrust decision means there's uncertainty over the legal principles regarding product design in the European market. "These uncertainties could ... delay release dates for Windows or other products," the SEC filing read. Microsoft has provided copies of Vista to the Commission along with technical information, said spokesman Tom Brookes. The Commission, he said, has raised concerns regarding complaints by competitors. In March, the Commission sent a letter to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, saying it was concerned about certain functions in Vista and how compatible the OS would be with products from other software companies. European Commission representatives were not immediately available for comment regarding Thursday's letter. Brookes said Microsoft was unaware of the letter until this morning. Two of the legislators said their letter is based on information contained in the company's SEC filing. Heaton-Harris referred questions to Microsoft, regarding why the company thought the E.U. might cause a delay Vista's shipping date. Microsoft has said Vista will be ready for corporate customers in November and consumers in January. Bowles said she has participated in informal sessions where Commission members have acknowledged they are watching Microsoft's development of Vista closely. She said she had no specific information on what the Commission is currently doing, as few details are publicly released. However, the Commission's actions have prompted concern among small to medium-size businesses in Europe, worried that the E.U. could potentially delay Vista's release, putting them at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world, Bowles said. "That climate of uncertainty caused through competition policy and actions already taken ... are meaning that Europe is being deprived," Bowles said. Europe is in the middle of a 10-year plan, called the Lisbon Agenda, to increase the continent's competitiveness in technology. The legislators wrote that they are concerned the Commission's actions toward Microsoft are undermining Europe's moves to become a knowledge-driven economy. Microsoft and the Commission have locked horns over how the company is complying with the March 2004 antitrust decision. TheÂ Commission fined MicrosoftÂ â¬280.5 million ($357 million at the time) in July for failing to provide technical documentation for certain protocols used by its server products. The Commission required disclosure of the protocols to allow competitors to develop compatible products.Â Microsoft is appealing. Microsoft is also appealing the entire March 2004 decision, in which it was fined â¬497 million ($613 million at the time), before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
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EC probe extended, McAfee puts boot in More bad news for Microsoft's delayed operating system Vista - the European Commission is widening an investigation into whether or not it breaches competition law.â¦
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Microsoft MSFT.O raised the   possibility on Thursday that it might delay the introduction of   its new Vista Windows operating system in Europe, depending on   antitrust requirements of the European Commission.
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Security experts cast doubt on claims that Microsofts Vista is "more secure" than other operating systems.
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Two U.S. software firms are asking the  European Commission to take action against Microsoft's   new Vista operating system, the Wall Street Journal reported on  Thursday.
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Any attempt to incorporate its own security software in Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp.'s next generation operating system, could spark a new antitrust spat with Europe's top regulator, the European Commission, spokesman Jonathan Todd warned Tuesday.
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The European Union's top competition  regulator clashed with Microsoft  on Tuesday over  security upgrades in the U.S. software giant's new Windows  Vista operating system in a re-run of past antitrust battles.
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Broken by brute force and swiped from shelves The activation method used by Microsoft to protect Vista from piracy is under attack on multiple fronts.â¦
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LUXEMBOURG -- Microsoft Corp. told a European Union court yesterday that it would suffer irreparable harm if forced to reveal more of its software code to rivals, while the EU said such information was crucial to keep competitors alive.
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The new antipiracy controls due to be included in Microsoft's forthcoming operating system, Windows Vista, have highlighted the ongoing threat of piracy faced by many software companies.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union escalated its trans-Atlantic fight with Microsoft Corp. yesterday , threatening huge new fines against the software maker over claims it is asking rivals to pay too much for information that would help their servers work with Windows.
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European Union investigators will probe allegations that Microsoft withheld information from rivals that would allow them to make compatible software.
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(InfoWorld) - Two engineers at the computer security firm Symantec are coming to Brussels next week to discuss theÂ antitrust threatÂ posed to their company by the upcoming version of Microsoft's Windows, dubbed Vista, a Symantec spokesman said Thursday. Vice President for Consumer Engineering Rowan Trollope and a senior engineer in the technology strategy office, Bruce McCorkendale, will press their case to the European antitrust regulator, the European Commission. Vista is due to launch at the beginning of next year. The Commission hasÂ warned MicrosoftÂ about the possible impact on competition ofÂ Vista's built-in security software. The regulator fears that by including a sophisticated antivirus program into Vista, this could have a similar effect to the bundling of Media Player with Windows XP. Two and a half years ago the Commission ruled that the bundling of Media Player into Windows was anticompetitive and ordered Microsoft to launch a second version of Windows without Media Player. It alsoÂ fined the companyÂ nearly â¬500 million ($634 million). Meanwhile, Adobe Systems has told European Union regulators that Microsoft should be banned from bundling in free competing software for reading and writing electronic documents into Vista, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal Europe. The paper cites unnamed people familiar with the situation. Adobe's and Symantec's lobbying moves will come as no surprise to the Commission. Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes wrote to Microsoft in March expressing concern about Vista's impact on competition, and cited the computer security and document reader and writers sectors as examples of where Microsoft's bundling strategy might pose competition problems. However, earlier this week Kroes insisted she wasn't calling for Microsoft to launch Vista without any security system. "I have seen it suggested that the Commission may seek to prevent Microsoft from improving the security of its operating system. This is categorically not the case," she wrote in a letter to the Financial Times newspaper.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Ben Fathi, now the chief of development in the Windows core operating system group, would like Vista to have half the first-year security flaws of its predecessor, XP. Security analysts offer their thoughts.
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Microsoft  said on Thursday it  remained on track to launch its Windows Vista operating system  in Europe in January but again asked the European Commission to  detail concerns it may have with the software.