I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.
Cute. I believe that Gates should be stocking up a multi year supply of vaseline, 'cause there's going to be no end to this. Hmmm, the genius pundits on this thread have declared Windows Media Player to be dead. Not good enough for the Koreans, EU, IBM, ORCL, Nokia, and various and sundry other competitors and bureaucrats...
seattlepi.nwsource.com
Friday, December 9, 2005
Microsoft rivals petition to join EU antitrust case
BLOOMBERG NEWS
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- International Business Machines Corp., Oracle Corp. and Nokia have sought court permission to join the European Commission's antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., a lawyer representing their trade group said Thursday.
The three companies and other members of an organization called the European Committee for Interoperability Systems asked to be interveners in an appeal at the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, according to Thomas Vinje, an antitrust lawyer at Clifford Chance LLP.
"We believe the commission is right to insist on the rapid and efficient implementation of its antitrust decision," Vinje said in an interview Thursday.
Microsoft is appealing a March 2004 decision by the European Commission ordering it to offer a version of Windows without a video and music player and to disclose information about its operating system software to competitors.
Regulators also fined the company a record $588 million for abusing its market dominance.
In a separate appeal filed Aug. 10, Microsoft said the European regulator's order that it license information to developers of open-source products violates its intellectual property rights.
The Software and Information Industry Association, which represents more than 750 software makers, including Red Hat Inc., a distributor of the Linux operating system, also applied to support the commission. Both groups asked Tuesday to intervene, Vinje said.
Advocates of open-source programs remain the EU's main supporters in the case against Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, as businesses reach settlements with the Redmond company.
RealNetworks Inc. withdrew from the EU case in October in a $761 million agreement. Novell Inc. and the Computer & Communications Industry Association settled last year.
Linux threatens Microsoft's sales of Windows-based server software. Linux, with backing from companies including IBM, Novell and Red Hat, had third-quarter sales of $1.44 billion, according to industry research firm IDC. |
