- Sep 26, 2000
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060425/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_microsoft
Microsoft ended a rival's reign as the leading PC media-player maker by bundling its own program with Windows ? and could do the same to others if its appeal of a landmark antitrust ruling is granted, the European Commission said Tuesday.
Microsoft brushed off the claims, saying that it continuously added functions to its operating systems to meet likely demand from consumers ? part of the technology sector's natural evolution.
"This case is of vital importance for innovation," Per Hellstrom, a Commission lawyer told the 13 judges. "Microsoft cannot be allowed to decide who can innovate and who cannot."
However, Hellstrom said that Microsoft Corp., because of its clout and near-monopoly size, can alter innovation by other companies simply by incorporating its own program or protocol.
The company, he said, has a "chilling effect on innovation in any area where Microsoft may take an interest."
For the uninformed or "truthiness" promoters the whole idea of "Freedom to Innovate" is what Microsoft has been claiming it needs in its ads for the last 3-4 years.
Yet, Microsoft got the idea about this when a Federal Court, a few years earlier, in one of the first anti-trust cases AGAINST Microsoft, said the Microsoft was stifling innovation.
In other words Microsoft was arguing for exactly what it was Microsoft was killing.
Now the EU has called them on it.
Whether you agree or disagree with MS adding "features" which are imitations of other companies software, I am sure we can all agree that MS is so big and powerful and criminal that MS has had a chilling effect on innovation, and that the most innovative software was developed by other companies and copied or stolen by Microsoft.
Microsoft ended a rival's reign as the leading PC media-player maker by bundling its own program with Windows ? and could do the same to others if its appeal of a landmark antitrust ruling is granted, the European Commission said Tuesday.
Microsoft brushed off the claims, saying that it continuously added functions to its operating systems to meet likely demand from consumers ? part of the technology sector's natural evolution.
"This case is of vital importance for innovation," Per Hellstrom, a Commission lawyer told the 13 judges. "Microsoft cannot be allowed to decide who can innovate and who cannot."
However, Hellstrom said that Microsoft Corp., because of its clout and near-monopoly size, can alter innovation by other companies simply by incorporating its own program or protocol.
The company, he said, has a "chilling effect on innovation in any area where Microsoft may take an interest."
For the uninformed or "truthiness" promoters the whole idea of "Freedom to Innovate" is what Microsoft has been claiming it needs in its ads for the last 3-4 years.
Yet, Microsoft got the idea about this when a Federal Court, a few years earlier, in one of the first anti-trust cases AGAINST Microsoft, said the Microsoft was stifling innovation.
In other words Microsoft was arguing for exactly what it was Microsoft was killing.
Now the EU has called them on it.
Whether you agree or disagree with MS adding "features" which are imitations of other companies software, I am sure we can all agree that MS is so big and powerful and criminal that MS has had a chilling effect on innovation, and that the most innovative software was developed by other companies and copied or stolen by Microsoft.
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