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Antitrust: The EU Case Against Microsoft | Investingation, Court Proceedings, Decisions, Enforcment, Case Docuemnts

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:51:10 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

The web-pages referred to below provide information about the European Commission’s March 2004 Microsoft Decision, the Court of First Instance proceedings relating to that Decision, and its ongoing implementation.

Tags: anti-trust eu microsoft msoffice ooxml openxml

Posted by: garyedwards

Antitrust: Commission imposes € 899 million penalty on Microsoft for non-compliance with March 2004 DecisionOOXM

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:51:10 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Antitrust: Commission imposes € 899 million penalty on Microsoft for non-compliance with March 2004 Decision

Tags: anti-trust eu microsoft ooxml openxml

Posted by: garyedwards

Microsoft makes more code public - International Herald Tribune

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:45:03 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

"Today's announcement is still all about the rest of the world interoperating with Microsoft on Microsoft's own terms, not the other way around," said Thomas Vintje, a lawyer representing the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, a Brussels-based group representing Microsoft competitors like Adobe, Nokia and Oracle, which brought one of the new complaints that led to the current EU commission investigations of the company. "The world needs a permanent change in Microsoft's behavior, not just another announcement," he said.

Tags: anti-trust ecis eu odf ooxml

Posted by: garyedwards

Wizard of ODF: The Foundation on Interop and the List Proposal Vote Deadline

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:05:55 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Oh, my. Both IBM and Sun voted for the proposal that broke the Foundation's plugin that was going to add full-fidelity native ODF file support to Microsoft Office. So it's sounding to me like at least two of the TC members who voted for the Sun/KOffice proposal didn't check in with the ECIS lawyer before they broke interoperability with Microsoft Office. Do you think Microsoft won't use this evidence in the DG Competition antitrust proceeding, Michael? Let's see, you guys are prosecuting Microsoft for not supporting ODF in Microsoft Office while you block Microsoft Office from supporting ODF. Yeah, I think DG Competition is going to hear about this one from Microsoft. They'll probably hear about what you said about compatibility being a trade off too. Oh, yeah. Microsoft's lawyers are going to love this. Look at the ECIS public statement about interoperability's importance.

Tags: anti-trust ecis foundation odf ooxml opendocument openxml

Posted by: garyedwards

Microsoft bids big for Yahoo - $44.6 Billion |Techworld.com

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:23:58 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Microsoft has offered to buy the search engine company Yahoo for $44.6 billion (£22.4 bn) in cash and shares.

The offer is 62 percent above Yahoo's closing share price on Thursday

Tags: anti-trust google microsoft yahoo

Posted by: garyedwards

Independent study advises IT planners to go OOXML

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:52:44 -0000

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

3.2.2.2. A pox on both your houses!

gary.edwards - 01/22/08

Hi Robert,

What you've posted are examples of MSOffice ”compatibility settings” used to establish backwards compatibility with older documents, and, for the conversion of alien file formats (such as various versions of WordPerfect .wpd). These compatibility settings are unspecified in that we know the syntax but have no idea of the semantics. And without the semantic description there is no way other developers can understand implementation. This of course guarantees an unacceptable breakdown of interoperability.

But i would be hesitant to make my stand of rejecting OOXML based on this issue. It turns out that there are upwards of 150 unspecified compatibility settings used by OpenOffice/StarOffice. These settings are not specified in ODF, but will nevertheless show up in OpenOffice ODF documents – similarly defying interoperability efforts!

Since the compatibility settings are not specified or even mentioned in the ODF 1.0 – ISO 26300 specification, we have to go to the OOo source code to discover where this stuff comes from. Check out lines 169-211. Here you will find interesting settings such as, “UseFormerLineSpacing, UseFormerObjectPositioning, and UseFormerTextWrapping”.

So what's going on here?

From: Bill Gates Sent: Saturday, December 5 1998 To: Bob Muglia, Jon DeVann, Steven Sinofsky Subject : Office rendering "One thing we have got to change in our strategy - allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other peoples browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company. We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities. Anything else is suicide for our platform. This is a case where Office has to avoid doing something to destroy Windows. I would be glad to explain at a greater length. Likewise this love of DAV in Office/Exchange is a huge problem. I would also like to make sure people understand this as well." Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Tags: anti-trust browser-wars gates msoffice netscape ooxml w3c

Posted by: garyedwards

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Fat Guy in Salesforce hell - Flock

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:58:49 -0000

Comments:

Wow! Another great quote from Nick. When we were at the Office 2.0 Conference a few weeks ago, this was the problem every single collaborative computing initiative was facing. Sure they had great collaborative efforts. But these efforts were outside exisitng businesss processes and applications! That's fine for kids and consumers. But it's the kiss of death for enterprise, smb, and organizations with workgroup busines sprocesses based on MSOffice and Outlook.

So no matter how innovative the WEb 2.0 - Office 2.0 - Enterprise 2.0 applications and services are, they are setting the marketplace for Microsoft to come in and take everything. Because Microsoft and Microsoft alone ownes the interoperability - integration interfaces into MSOffice and Outlook, they are in a position to destroy any of the 2.0 players at will. It's simply a matter of entering the space with their own 2.0 application or service.

The more i see of this, the more convinced i am that the governemnts of the world are going to have to step in stop Microsoft's push to move from the desktop into server, device and web systems.

~ge~

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

Second, don't underestimate the lock-in power that programs like Outlook and Excel and Quickbooks and Peachtree and their associated files still hold, particularly in smaller businesses. Someday we may have standard document formats and easily transportable data, but we don't yet. The competitive battle for the future of software is going to be fought out at the level of the Little Picture as much as at the level of the Big Picture. Lose sight of either one, and you'll be in trouble. In other words: It ain't over till the Fat Guy rants.

Tags: anti-trust integration interop interoperability

Posted by: garyedwards

antitrust_eu_us.pdf (application/pdf Object) - Flock

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:25:16 -0000

Comments:

posted by garyedwards

Tags: anti-trust eu interoperability microsoft

Posted by: garyedwards

Microsoft Watch - Corporate - Microsoft's Stunning Court Defeat

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 15:06:07 -0000

Comments:

Microsoft Watch Joe Wilcox is on the job. This particular hgihlighted quote speaks volumes. The USA anti trust settlement famously allowed Microsoft to commercialize interoperability through expensive licenses - $8 Million per year for just the basic package.

It looks like the EU would force those interoperability API's out into the open. I wonder how this position will impact the November 12 th hearing on lifting the USA anti trust oversight? We have the EU saying the monopolist is illegally maintaining their monopoly through various interop barricades. And, the USA about to declare that the interop barricades no longer exists, therefore, the monopolist should be free to wreck havoc.

The stage looks set for a vey dramatic final act.

posted by garyedwards

Highlights and Sticky Notes:

"The Court considers that the Commission was correct to conclude that the work group server operating systems of Microsoft's competitors must be able to interoperate with Windows domain architecture on an equal footing with Windows operating systems if they are to be capable of being marketed viably. The absence of such interoperability has the effect of reinforcing Microsoft's competitive position on the market and creates a risk that competition will be eliminated."

Here, U.S. oversight of Microsoft will continue until at least November 2009, largely because of server protocol licensing. The so-called "California group" of states—those that didn't settle the U.S. antitrust case—and other parties will likely ask the court here to align the two disclosure programs, extending the ruling's impact well beyond Europe.

I wonder if this is correct? My understanding is that the California Group will be brushed aside by the Feds? posted by garyedwards

Tags: anti-trust cdf interoperability microsoft odf ooxml

Posted by: garyedwards