[Am-info] Recalcitrant Microsoft

[Mike Stephen]

cp technology news
Wednesday, Mar 24, 2004 	
	
'Recalcitrant' Microsoft unlikely to change its strategy, tech observers say

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Hartmut Sell knows that the European Union's 
$613-million fine for antitrust violations at Microsoft Corp. means 
little to a company with more than $50 billion in cash reserves.

But Sell, who runs a small computer store in Berlin, relished the 
punitive spirit of Wednesday's EU ruling against world's largest 
software maker. "It's about time that Microsoft got their bell rung," 
Sell said.

 From Silicon Valley executives to Belgian bureaucrats, technology 
industry veterans around the world said the EU's fine - 497.2 million 
euros - was overdue comeuppance for Microsoft, even if they remained 
dubious that the company will change its business strategy to comply.

The EU ruling was far harsher than the antitrust settlement in the 
United States, where an appeal court overturned a 2001 decision that 
Microsoft must be split into two companies and must remove its Web 
browser software from the Windows operating system.

If the EU orders are upheld, Microsoft would be forced to share software 
code with rivals and stop bundling some programs into Windows.

"Microsoft is going to be recalcitrant and reluctant, and getting them 
to follow the new rules will be like pulling teeth," said Ed Black, 
president of the Washington-based Computer & Communications Industry 
Association, which filed another lawsuit last year against Microsoft.

"My hope is that as Microsoft attempts to vigorously undercut these 
orders, EU regulators will say, 'That's it. Next time you come in front 
of a judge, we're not giving you another chance.' "

Industry veterans - particularly in Silicon Valley, where many 
executives are openly hostile toward Microsoft - said the EU punishments 
wouldn't likely dent their longtime nemesis.

"Microsoft will probably respond by raising prices on the software it 
sells in the EU to compensate for the additional risk of fines in the 
future," said Brian Behlendorf, founder of CollabNet Inc., an 
open-source software and consulting company. He said requiring Microsoft 
to sell operating systems without a media player won't thwart the 
company, and he has asked regulators to strip Microsoft of its patents.

Bruce Perens, a consultant and a founder of the open-source movement, 
said antitrust commissioners must strictly enforce the EU ruling - which 
stated that Microsoft's "illegal behaviour is still ongoing."

"This ruling shows that the U.S. settlement was a sham that had 
absolutely no deterrent on the behaviour of a twice-convicted 
monopolist," Perens said. "There needs to be continued scrutiny in the 
EU, United States and around the world. Without very close scrutiny, 
Microsoft has shown that it will not change its behaviour."

Others say letting the case fester in appeals could have disastrous 
consequences. By the time Microsoft settled its antitrust case with the 
U.S. Justice Department, the Internet browser war between Microsoft's 
Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator that precipitated it had 
ended - and Microsoft won.

"The slowness of legal process is a big problem," said Alan Cox, a 
deputy to Linux project leader Linus Torvalds. "Antitrust action tends 
to occur after the murder was committed, so to speak."

Executives at Sun Microsystems, which complained to the EU in 1998 that 
Microsoft software was incompatible with Sun servers, worried about a 
lengthy appeal. Sun would need to see Microsoft's code a year before it 
could begin selling new servers, said Lee Patch, vice-president of legal 
affairs.

"Is a stay appropriate after Microsoft prolonged these proceedings five 
years already? I think not," Patch said. "There's an urgency to this 
matter that goes beyond Microsoft's interest - it goes to consumers and 
industry."

Haakon Wium Lie, chief technical officer at Opera Software, a Norwegian 
maker of a competing Web browser, said the EU penalty - if enforced - 
could improve competition.

"If this is a first step, then it is good," Lie said. "If this is it, it 
is not enough."

Microsoft's steep licensing fees are causing many countries - 
particularly cash-strapped nations in Asia and Latin America - to 
install open-source software, often freely distributed on the Internet.

China is using the Linux operating system instead of Microsoft Windows 
on desktop PCs in government agencies and universities, and open-source 
programs for servers have become popular in corporations worldwide.

Matthew Szulik, head of open-source software company Red Hat Inc., said 
he wasn't surprised that the sanctions came from Brussels, not 
Washington where Microsoft was "playing on their home court."

The EU ruling, Szulik said, "sends a message to the consumers of the 
international marketplace that Microsoft's behaviours and practices will 
not be tolerated, and competing in a free and open environment is the 
end goal."

© The Canadian Press, 2004