Comments on: Microsoft Still Trying Evade the Rule of Law (EU Antitrust Edtion)

By: ThatLeftTurnInABQ

ThatLeftTurnInABQ — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:41:00 +0000

Microsoft just does not get it. The company seems not to understand that it is subject to the rule of law and has to comply when ordered to. Yes, Steve, there really are organizations out there that are bigger, tougher, and more determined than you are.

I'm going to go out on a highly speculative limb and point out that part of the problem here for Microsoft may be that there is an additional political undertone present in the legal disputes between it and the EU which is missing from comparable US court cases (where in the past they have succeeded in wriggling off the hook).

Microsoft is a US based company. Some of their products can and do play important roles in IT systems upon which information-centric warfare is based, not just cyber-warfare but command-and-control and targeting aspects of actual weapons systems. This means that they (and the software industry more broadly as well) have a potential military and geopolitical significance beyond just their contribution to the GDP.

From a national security standpoint the EU can no more afford to allow software development to be dominated by the US than Great Britain could afford to allow Germany to pull ahead in optics, chemical engineering, and other cutting edge industries in the years before 1914, without paying a heavy price for such negligence in a future conflict pitting European interests against those of the US.

I do not think the sponsorship of the open-source movement by the EU public sector, and other efforts to undercut US based software companies (such as the EU's attempts to reign in Microsoft in this case) are an accident. I see them as part of a slow, subtle and persistent attempt by the EU to reduce their dependence on a strategically important US dominated industry in anticipation of a future where their geopolitical interests and those of the US are likely to diverge.

I'm not saying that this is part of a sinister conspiracy - if our positions were reversed then US policy makers would be exceedingly foolish and negligent in their duties not to do the same thing. Also, although this trend started before 2001, this is IMHO another aspect of the erosion of US power and influence which the Bush Admin has done nothing to check and may be responsible for accelerating, by encouraging Europeans to think more critically about US policy and leadership.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:39:00 +0000

It’s encouraging to see Microsoft stand up for itself. Yes, it is subject to the rule of law–but the rule of law is subject to basic rights. When laws are designed by corrupt bureaucrats to endanger, restrict, or abrogate rights, then one has every right to resist those laws through the legal process. Microsoft has every right to its market share and profits–it earned both by creating a superior product that Europeans willfully and freely purchased. The EU is not concerned with “competition”–it is intentionally attacking a successful American corporation for the benefit of less efficient European companies and padding its own pockets with money that Microsoft alone earned. That is legalized theft. Is this the rule of law you stand for? Microsoft has every right to keep its profits, its intellectual property, and its appeal. Microsoft is right and it deserves to win.

By: Richard Kline

Richard Kline — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:48:00 +0000

Microsoft has broken every rule; ripped off and backstabbed every major ally; thumbed it’s nose at the US government and received obsequious toe-kissing in return; been caught dead in US court and hung on until the knowing judge got canned and a pliant nonentity effectively gutted court-mandated compliance here. Everytime, they won AND NEVER PAID A SINGLE, REAL PENALTY—-and their Top Two just can’t believe that they have lost, are even capable of losing in court in the EU. They’re Microsoft: they’re bigger than God and on every computer that counts, “We’re Standard Oil of the 21st century, we don’t lose” (if you ask them, that is). What we see is simply self-definitional thinking at Mt. Everest altitudes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:44:00 +0000

"Yes, Steve, there really are organizations out there that are bigger, tougher, and more determined than you are.

He'll just swear and throw a chair. It's his standard modus operandi.

These are ruthless, classless guys and the only tactic they understand is bare knuckles. Always have been.

They don't have the brains to understand what a perilous position they're in. The 'X family of OS's is eating their lunch. The formats used by their Office product are pretty much understood now and the day is coming soon when Google will provide a web based product synchronized with the local hard drive so work can continue when net access is not available. That will be the end of Microsoft.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:40:00 +0000

The arrogance of Microsoft is symptomatic of what is wrong with croney and monopoly capitalism.

Microsoft ceased long ago to be a growing, technologically proficient company.

It is going the way of all in-bred bureaucratic monopolies, but oh so slowly.