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EU Probes Microsoft Again

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The European Commission is once again going after Microsoft. What happened to all the money the EU already got out of MS? That should have held them over for at least a couple violations, right? ;)

The European Commission opened two formal probes, the first move against the company since a court four months ago backed the EU in a long-running legal battle over Microsoft's actions in using its ubiquitous Windows operating system to elbow into new software markets.
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I doubt they'd be half as worried if it was a European country with the wildly popular OS.
 
One wonders what the EU needs all that money for, especially when we consider all the ridiculous taxes EU member states place on their citizens. Maybe to subsidize the financial troubles of companies like Airbus? :p
 
Well - as a Brit and thus a European, I have emailed both my MP ( UK governmental representative) and my MEP ( European governmental representative ) expressing my continued disgust at these pathetic law suits - when there are genuine issues that are far more deserving of the EU's attention.

I emailed both last time around, and received no response. Lazy bastards.

I just hope [H] readers can remember that EU lawyers do not speak for the population of the EU, nor do their actions reflect the requests, expectations or demands of the EU public.


Doug
 
I emailed both last time around, and received no response. Lazy bastards.

I just hope [H] readers can remember that EU lawyers do not speak for the population of the EU, nor do their actions reflect the requests, expectations or demands of the EU public.


Doug
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/comfort

Just so long as the EU people remember we're not all fat lazy idiots... (ok well some of us are.... well a significant amount.... where was I going with this? :D)
 
Maybe Microsoft should just tell the EU that they will no longer have a presence there. Since the EU continues to be a pain in the ass to what appears large(r) corporations that want to do business there, it would seem that the cost of doing business in the EU far outweighs the grief you get from the EU. I would just pull out and let the masses do the work for me.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
I doubt they'd be half as worried if it was a European country with the wildly popular OS.
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And that is the core of the issue. To be fair, a nation certainly has the right to determine what amount of influence a foreign nation should be allowed to have on their own commerce. But at the same time, that is an issue for the EU's constituent nations to resolve on their own, not something for a single political body to decide.
 
To be fair to the EU lawyerscum (who are no different really from American lawyerscum), the EU anticompetition court acts based on complaints, afaik. As I understand things, many of the complaints being lodged are from American companies. That doesn't mean that this isn't a trade war waged on the sly, but it is more complicated than simple America-bashing.

As for the specifics of this suit:

OOO was pretty damned clunky until relatively recently. It is still slower than Office, and uneccessarily difficult at times. Business is where they are trying to compete and Office licensing simply isn't to onerous for businesses. They can afford to license a product that their employees are familiar with, so is it any surprise that they keep doing so?

Opera can go blow. They really need to stop whining and start competing. They are getting beaten by a combination of IE7 and Firefox. Firefox sure as hell isn't an MS product and it has had absolutely no problem gobbling up market share.
 
if they havn't broken any laws they wouldn't be in this mess

No sympathy They made their bed now its their time to defend it


The US didn't have the balls todo anything against MS
 
eeyrjmr said:
if they havn't broken any laws they wouldn't be in this mess

No sympathy They made their bed now its their time to defend it


The US didn't have the balls todo anything against MS
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They didn't break any laws. That's been decided like three times now by multiple countries.
 
don't recall anyone arms being broken to use MS stuff.......EU and all its members need to just die.
 
I just wonder how long before Microsoft pulls out it's operations there. Then again, I don't know of the profits if any, that they are making in the area.
 
I'm sure to MS, that by now it sure as hell feels like on big probe being shoved somewhere.

This is god damn annoying, to say the least. It'd be grand if Intel, Microsoft and all others being "probed" (hehe, that tingles now) just up and said "Hey, ok, we wont sell squat to anyone there". Let those cards fall for, oh, 36 months and go from there.
 
I know your not supposed to throw the baby out with the bath water, but I'd stop doing business in the EU if I were MS. Least for a year or two.

Fine. You want to fine me millions for selling our products and services in your country then we'll stop doing business bitch.
 
HOCP4ME said:
They didn't break any laws. That's been decided like three times now by multiple countries.
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excuse me? MS have been found guilty of break anti-competative laws in both the US and the EU

where have you been for the last 10years :rolleyes:



Also you lot have to rememeber how the EU system works. A complaint has been logged, such a complaint has to be looked into. It may get thrown out but a complaint has been logged.

This hasn't been pushed onto the higher courts (yet)
 
kittmaster said:
don't recall anyone arms being broken to use MS stuff.......EU and all its members need to just die.
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I need to die, because some American company filed a complaint with some lawyers in Brussels.

Care to explain that thought process, run it past me step by step. I quite like my life, but if need must, then I'll do what is necessary. I'd just like to make sure my extermination is justified before re-writing my will and taking the cyanide pills.

Doug
 
eeyrjmr said:
excuse me? MS have been found guilty of break anti-competative laws in both the US and the EU

where have you been for the last 10years :rolleyes:
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Okay, so they were found guilty in the EU, but in the US they appealed and won. That's why they weren't dissolved.

Correct me if I'm wrong about that.
 
Personally if I was Bill Gates, I would tell the EU if they want to continue down this path,

Then Microsoft will hereby revoke all user licences for all Microsoft products in the EU and sue any country or anyone who uses a Microsoft product for piracy.

I would imagine the EU would back down real fast if that threat was made.
 
Oh, and they originally violated the EU antitrust laws by bundling apps with Windows (stupid law if you ask me). They fixed that now (they offer versions without the bundled apps), so who knows what they're "violating" this time.

Paladin said:
Personally if I was Bill Gates, I would tell the EU if they want to continue down this path,

Then Microsoft will hereby revoke all user licences for all Microsoft products in the EU and sue any country or anyone who uses a Microsoft product for piracy.

I would imagine the EU would back down real fast if that threat was made.
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Nah. They just need to stop selling products in the EU. I mean, if they aren't making any profits there because of all these lawsuits, it only makes business sense to pull out.
 
djellison said:
I need to die, because some American company filed a complaint with some lawyers in Brussels.

Care to explain that thought process, run it past me step by step. I quite like my life, but if need must, then I'll do what is necessary. I'd just like to make sure my extermination is justified before re-writing my will and taking the cyanide pills.

Doug
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Here is my thought process: EU doesn't like an MS monopoly and the way it distributes it software/apps/etc etc......TFB. Go buy something else. Create an EU version of MS and STFU already. MS > US company EU > Europe.....what rights do you have exactly on how to tell US companies to run its business?.........oh thats right....none, you only want the money just because you can.......:rolleyes:

Seems like every other week EU is sueing MS for something.....GMAFB

I'd say the SAME THING if the tables were turned.......lots of useless sueing going on.....its a real burden on everyone......plain and simple.
 
Paladin said:
Personally if I was Bill Gates, I would tell the EU if they want to continue down this path,

Then Microsoft will hereby revoke all user licences for all Microsoft products in the EU and sue any country or anyone who uses a Microsoft product for piracy.

I would imagine the EU would back down real fast if that threat was made.
Click to expand...

And this is part of my point in my original post........if EU doesn't like it.......move on and buy something else........sueing MS over crap that's now legal here is stupid.....
 
If I were Microsoft, I would make a super stripped down version of Windows and sell ONLY that in Europe, to make the EU happy, but at the same time charge 4x as much, sort of like what Apple did with the iPhone :p
 
More idiots spamming anti-European crap. Where were all of you when NY launched an investigation into Intel? You were certainly all there talking about how greedy the EU was when THEY went after Intel, but you were all suddenly quiet when NY did.

What right do they have to tell American companies what to do? Every goddamn right, it's their countries and Microsoft agreed to follow their laws. They've blatantly failed to do so. Quite frankly, you can take your American sense of entitlement and shove it up your ass. The world owes you nothing.
 
What happened with that version of Windows without IE bundled with it that the EU cry so hard for? No one bought it, of course.

Some guy always gets better grades than me in physics because he studies so much harder than I do. Perhaps I should have the EU sue him for it?

No fairs!
 
How much you want to bet that these lawyers and judges are using computers with Microsoft Windows and Office on them.
 
Nemesis999 said:
More idiots spamming anti-European crap. Where were all of you when NY launched an investigation into Intel? You were certainly all there talking about how greedy the EU was when THEY went after Intel, but you were all suddenly quiet when NY did.

What right do they have to tell American companies what to do? Every goddamn right, it's their countries and Microsoft agreed to follow their laws. They've blatantly failed to do so. Quite frankly, you can take your American sense of entitlement and shove it up your ass. The world owes you nothing.
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Sorry but I have to say it's a bad comparison. NY's lawsuit is justified. Intel is bullying OEM's into discluding AMD products. That's wrong.

EU on the other hand is suing Intel merely because their AMD is performing poorly.

You can't have the cake and eat it too. NY is actually helping the EU by protecting AMD's interest, wouldn't you think?

As for sense of entitlement, it's said a million times, it's not Microsoft's fault everyone likes their operating systems. Linux and Mac users and zealots preach to death the fact that everything Microsoft do, they can do better, but why aren't they selling better? Don't tell me about compatibility and user friendliness. Everything works in Macs and Linux, right?

In fairness to the anti-EU crowd, the EU has been going sue crazy the past several months. You have to admit that it's going a little overboard. Nobody's stopping European countries from making their own products or even putting embargos on ours, but I guess it makes more sense to them to sue them and make money.. just like Microsoft's doing? Making money?
 
uberbucket said:
What happened with that version of Windows without IE bundled with it that the EU cry so hard for? No one bought it, of course.

Some guy always gets better grades than me in physics because he studies so much harder than I do. Perhaps I should have the EU sue him for it?

No fairs!
Click to expand...

no such version exists :rolleyes:
 
Azhar said:
Sorry but I have to say it's a bad comparison. NY's lawsuit is justified. Intel is bullying OEM's into discluding AMD products. That's wrong.

EU on the other hand is suing Intel merely because their AMD is performing poorly.

You can't have the cake and eat it too. NY is actually helping the EU by protecting AMD's interest, wouldn't you think?

As for sense of entitlement, it's said a million times, it's not Microsoft's fault everyone likes their operating systems. Linux and Mac users and zealots preach to death the fact that everything Microsoft do, they can do better, but why aren't they selling better? Don't tell me about compatibility and user friendliness. Everything works in Macs and Linux, right?

In fairness to the anti-EU crowd, the EU has been going sue crazy the past several months. You have to admit that it's going a little overboard. Nobody's stopping European countries from making their own products or even putting embargos on ours, but I guess it makes more sense to them to sue them and make money.. just like Microsoft's doing? Making money?
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if there were no grounds to sue...

Seriously if MS can't abide by the rules then get the hell out of Europe, simple as that... but they won't

The last case that the EU won against MS, the case about the network protocol, the case that MS then provided "documentation"... remember that, well turns out their definition of "documentation" was CRAP!!!

if MS cannot abide by EU law or abide by rulings then they should get the hell out, simple as that

Funny how ppl here (americans I guess) are making this out to be a anti-american EU vs US thing when it is simply a case of the EU inforcing the law, laws that MS agreed to when they trade in the EU

All those people who think the EU are wrong here I would *REALLY* like to see the views on the OOXML thing then
 
HOCP4ME said:
Okay, so they were found guilty in the EU, but in the US they appealed and won. That's why they weren't dissolved.

Correct me if I'm wrong about that.
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so now you backpeddle

they were found guilty in the US, and they have been found guilty on a number of accounts in Europe and they still refuse to abide by the rulings

fuck um, hang them out to dry



Funny thing is once all these have been tested in court they can be applied to any OS/software that does these kind of practices IF they abuse their monopoly (watch out apple if you get that big)
 
And again to stress

THIS IS A PROBE! they aint gone to court


a complaint was made and thus a complaint must be looked into. IF grounds to litigation are found then MS will be taken to court


in all honesty MS will be seeing themselves in EU courts w.r.t. network protocol before they will be in court over this
 
kittmaster said:
Here is my thought process: EU doesn't like an MS monopoly and the way it distributes it software/apps/etc etc......TFB. Go buy something else. Create an EU version of MS and STFU already. MS > US company EU > Europe.....what rights do you have exactly on how to tell US companies to run its business?.........oh thats right....none, you only want the money just because you can.......:rolleyes:.
Click to expand...

You are making the one mistake I honestly didn't expect people to make. You are assuming that 'EU' = me. You are assuming that the actions of EU lawyers in some way represent the wishes of European people.

It doesn't.

I don't want Microsoft sued. I didn't ask for this action - I don't know a single person who did - I don't know anyone who agrees with it. I have actively (i.e. by writing emails and snail mail letters to my governmental representatives) opposed it - on two occasions.

And yet you us the word 'you' as if I have some sort of responsibility for these actions.

I hope, for your own sake, that you're being sarcastic and it's just not coming across well as a forum post - I didn't think people as blinkered and idiotic as that would be able to figure out how to turn on a computer.

Doug
 
Methadras said:
Maybe Microsoft should just tell the EU that they will no longer have a presence there. Since the EU continues to be a pain in the ass to what appears large(r) corporations that want to do business there, it would seem that the cost of doing business in the EU far outweighs the grief you get from the EU. I would just pull out and let the masses do the work for me.
Click to expand...

If Microsoft refused to allow residents of the EU to use the Windows OS they would be royally screwed. The EU would have to leave Microsoft alone and let them do buisness or risk a collapse of their countries.
 
L33t Masta said:
If Microsoft refused to allow residents of the EU to use the Windows OS they would be royally screwed. The EU would have to leave Microsoft alone and let them do buisness or risk a collapse of their countries.
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The EU wouldn't be royally screwed for starters.
And depending on the means of MS pullout it will show the rest of the world that MS are a monopoly and cannot be trusted.

IT would harm MS & the US by proxy more then it would the EU.
 
eeyrjmr said:
The EU wouldn't be royally screwed for starters.
And depending on the means of MS pullout it will show the rest of the world that MS are a monopoly and cannot be trusted.

IT would harm MS & the US by proxy more then it would the EU.
Click to expand...

No proper operating systems means no traffiic lights, no scheduling software, no way to control utilities like power or water, no way to moniter the criminal system or admininster justice, no TV, no internet. The EU would be tossed into a state of confusion and would cease to function properly as a political body. If Microsoft pulled out of the EU, saying it would be royally screwed is maybe being much too optimistic.
 
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