Score One For The Good Guys
October 22nd, 2007 by Justin Ryan
Microsoft announced that it will no longer fight the European anti-trust regulators, after last month's spanking in the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
European regulators have spent nine years fighting against Microsoft's notorious trade practices, and finally, the Empire has called it quits. Microsoft will now be required to sell its trade secrets to competitors, in this case, protocols necessary for integrating programs into Microsoft's server platforms. Any interested party can purchase the protocols for just over $14,000.
Microsoft is also out $1.43 billion in fines that have accrued over the last several years, and may be required to pay an additional $1.6 billion in fines that have accrued since December 2005.
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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
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small typo
On October 25th, 2007 Anonymous (not verified) says:
"it's" should be "its." Possessive, not "it is."
I suppose this is a victory of sorts, though $14,000 is hardly inexpensive, and is in fact still a significant barrier. And if they ever pay a dime of fines I'll be surprised.
Thanks
On October 30th, 2007 Justin Ryan says:
Thanks for catching that for me; sometimes even the editor needs an editor.
I think it is outrageous as well, but, I suspect the target market for server protocols isn't going to be individual hackers. Hopefully some benefit will come out of it.
I'm holding out hope that they'll be hit them with the other $1.6 billion that the judge can decide to fine them.
__________________________Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
Visit Linux Journal on IRC.