" 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)...'"
