Update 12: EU Accuses Microsoft of Paternal View
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Microsoft Corp. said Friday that small companies and their customers would suffer most if it is forced to remove its digital media software from Windows, while the European Union accused it of being &quot;paternalistic
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Microsoft is looking for additional European-based firms to file challenges against the European Union&#39;s US$600 million ruling against the software giant.
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Two U.S. software firms are asking the   European Commission to take action against Microsoft's MSFT.O   new Vista operating system, the Wall Street Journal reported on   Thursday.
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Prima precisazione: Microsoft dovrÃ  attenersi alle scelte europee appena possibile altrimenti tutti i suoi sistemi operativi potrebbero essere dichiarati illegali in UE (con o senza pianti di microsoft) e questo porterebbe al pagamento di cifre come 5
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Countdown faceoff Microsoft has fallen foul of the European Commission yet again over plans for its Vista operating system.â¦
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BRUSSELS: A European Union court ruled yesterday that Microsoft must immediately divulge some trade secrets to competitors and produce a version of its flagship Windows operating system stripped of the program that plays music and video.
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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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EU offers help for parents who are confused by the wide range of software that claims to make cyberspace safer for children.
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The EU executive commission rejected what it said had been a suggestion from US software giant Microsoft that it was delaying the launch of Microsoft's new Windows Vista operating system in Europe.
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Microsoft Corp.  filed revised  documents with the European Commission on Thursday aimed at  complying with a landmark antitrust decision from 2004, the  European Commission said.
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THE HAGUE, Sep 29  (IPS) - The EU aid package is a large one, but packed also  with paternalism and claims to  domination, development experts  said at the end of an aid conference.
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The EU judge in the case against Microsoft calls for an unexpected closed-door meeting. Also: Developing world expected to help revive tech sector....  Finland faces a loss of 3G phones.... and more.
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COMMENTARY: The European Union (UN)&#39;s European Commission (EC) has opened yet another probe into Microsoft&#39;s business practices.
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Microsoft Corp.  filed revised documents with the European Commission on Thursday aimed at complying with a landmark antitrust decision from 2004, the European Commission said.
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A European judge today cast a skeptical eye on whether Microsoft Corp. should be forced to create two versions of its Windows operating system, one with its program for
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BRUSSELS, Sep 21 (IPS) - Microsoft will still wield enormous power in the  global computer industry despite this week's ruling by a  European court that the Seattle-based corporation has abused its  monopoly.
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(InfoWorld) - No one used the 'L' word, but both sides in the Microsoft Corp. antitrust battle in Europe accused each other of lying about basic facts surrounding the latest twist in the long-running saga that emerged Thursday. The European Commission sent Microsoft a so-called statement of objections Thursday accusing the software vendor of failing to provide interoperability information on "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms." This was a requirement laid out in the landmark 2004 antitrust ruling against the company. In its statement the Commission said the software giant proposes overcharging for vital interoperability information needed by software makers to allow their products to work properly with the Windows operating system. It dismissed almost all of the information Microsoft proposed revealing as not innovative and therefore not worth the price the company wants to charge to license it. Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said Microsoft had agreed that the innovativeness of the information should be the main criterion when setting the price, but in a conference call with journalists later Thursday, Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith denied his company had agreed innovativeness should be the main criterion. "We told the Commission we believe innovation is one of three main elements. We don't have the same interpretation of what had been established [between Microsoft and the Commission]," he said. Then ECIS, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, accused Microsoft of misleading journalists by citing a study by accountants Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), which, according to the software company, shows that the prices Microsoft wants to charge for licenses to the interoperability information are 30 percent below normal market rates. "It is an outrageous comparison," said Thomas Vinje, ECIS's legal advisor and a partner in the Brussels office of law firm Clifford Chance. "The PWC study compares the prices Microsoft wants to charge with the market price for much more valuable information such as software code, documentation, and full redistribution rights," he said. "What people will get with Microsoft's interoperability information is a lot less valuable. To compare it with the sort of information in the PWC study is like comparing apples with... some withered fruit," he added. The actual prices Microsoft wants to charge for licensing out the interoperability information are too complicated to share with journalists, Microsoft spokesman Tom Brookes said. He warned inquisitive journalists that there is no simple price list. The Commission believes that if all software vendors bought licenses it would amount to around 35 percent of the net profit of the industry. Microsoft's Smith dismissed this, saying: "I don't think you can conclude that." He said that if all vendors bought the licenses the total revenue Microsoft would earn would total around US$30 million -- a tiny fraction of annual software industry profits. "That $30 million figure bears no resemblance to reality, and if Microsoft can't explain how they reached this figure it has absolutely no value," Vinje said. Microsoft has four weeks to respond toÂ the latest statement of objections, after which it faces daily fines of up to â¬3 million (US$3.9 million). In the meantime, the Commission is expected to conclude its assessment of the substance of the interoperability information Microsoft submitted. It doesn't have to be innovative. In fact Microsoft's rivals, including ECIS, argue that much of the information competitors need in order to build their software so that it interoperates with the ubiquitous Windows OS on PCs is quite straightforward. Nevertheless, if it isn't revealed then rivals are stuck, Vinje said. Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told journalists Thursday that Microsoft's continued failure to comply with the antitrust ruling is unprecedented. "In the 50 years of European antitrust policy, it's the first time we've been confronted with a company that has failed to comply with an antitrust decision," he said. "You have to look at their attitude faced with other antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions. This is a company that apparently does not like to have to conform with antitrust decisions," Todd added.