NewsForge: Jeremy Allison Weighs In On EU/MS Appeal Decision
Dec 23, 2004, 16:00 (3 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Joe Barr, Chris Preimesberger)
" Microsoft today lost its appeal of the European Union ruling
which requires it to -- among other things -- unbundle the Windows
Media Player in order to level the playing field with other firms
offering the same functionality for streaming audio and video. It
must also make public the information required to allow others to
interoperate with the Windows platform. But don't break out the
champagne just yet. According to Jeremy Allison, the lead Samba.org
developer, if the ruling doesn't preclude royalties, then the whole
effort by the EU will turn out to have been a waste of time.
"The ruling issued in March stated, 'The European Commission has
concluded, after a five-year investigation, that Microsoft Corp.
broke European Union competition law by leveraging its
near-monopoly in the market for PC operating systems (OS) onto the
markets for work group server operating systems (1) and for media
players (2)...'"
Complete
Story
Related Story:
LWN: FSF
Europe on Microsoft Ruling(Dec 22, 2004)
