This post originated from an RSS feed registered with .NET Buzz
by James Avery.
Original Post: Microsoft and the EU
Feed Title: .Avery Blog
Feed URL: /blog/Install/BlogNotConfiguredError.aspx
Feed Description: .NET and everything nice
Scoble asked what people think about the EU fine handed to Microsoft. He got so many comments that it dorked his software, I can't even find his original post anymore. I have been thinking about it over the last couple days and figured I would speak my mind on it here.
The EU has every right to fine Microsoft. I don't understand the people who argue that they should not be able to do this. MS is a company operating in Europe, and there practices can hurt European companies just like American companies. Part of operating in another country is being somewhat subject to that countries laws. If Sony was using unfair business tactics here we would fine the hell out of them. Arguing that they don't have the right to fine Microsoft is silly.
I agree with the fine in some ways. I believe that Microsoft has broken anti-trust rules and used unfair business practices in the past, US courts have found this to be true as well. From this perspective the EU has the right to fine or regulate MS for these actions, they affected European companies and consumers. As for the amount of the fine? It is more symbolic than anything, but I don't think the amount is ridiculous. Microsoft does about 52B a year, with about 20% of that in Europe, making this fine less than 10% of what MS makes a year in Europe.
What I don't agree with is the removal of Media Player, or even criticizing the fact that it is included. I can see the argument that integrating IE was wrong, since products like Netscape were already being sold. But Windows has had the ability to play CDs and WAV files since Windows 95, the extension of this to movies and MP3s is only logical. If you look at OS X it includes all of this functionality. Microsoft's mistake was making it seem like a separate product, if they had kept it more a part of OS they might have gotten away with it. Microsoft should make the best of it though, they should create a digital application pack like I talked about here.
If I was Microsoft I would pay the damn fine and get it over with, I am tired of all these lawsuits hanging over MS. It affects peoples perception of the company, and it is driving the stock down.
Previous Topic
