European Commission’s Continued Persecution of Microsoft is Unwarranted, says Taxpayer Watchdog | Citizens Against Government Waste

European Commission’s Continued Persecution of Microsoft is Unwarranted, says Taxpayer Watchdog

Press Release

For Immediate ReleaseContact: Tom Finnigan/Lauren Cook
March 23, 2005(202) 467-5300

 

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today denounced the European Commission’s (EC) continued offensive against Microsoft over imposed interoperability efforts allegedly meant to foster greater ease in competition for other software providers.  Last Friday, the EC claimed it had “strong doubts” that Microsoft is adequately complying with its orders.

In March 2004, the EC issued a decision requiring Microsoft to hand over valuable intellectual property to its competitors, unbundle its software, and pay a $613 million fine.  Although the European Court of First Instance recognized that the merits of the case favored Microsoft, the company was still forced to comply with the EC’s order by creating two versions of the Windows operating systems, one with its music and video player program, Media Player, and one without.  Microsoft also released server system code to competitors to facilitate their creation of interoperable applications.

“The EC’s continued harassment of Microsoft is yet another example of forcing a successful corporation to help its competitors who can’t succeed in the marketplace on their own,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.

“No judge in the U.S. or Europe should bar companies from integrating products with additional user-friendly features,” Schatz continued.  “Consumers who are not happy with MediaPlayer can easily download a different a player from any number of competitors.  These decisions are best left to the marketplace.” 

The EC has yet to decide if Microsoft’s modifications sufficiently comply with antitrust requirements established last year.  Competitors hoping to gain from the persecution of Microsoft contend that the unbundled version has technical problems that make it less functional when used with other players. 

When Microsoft stripped 186 Media Player files from its operating system, it deleted registry entries associated with the media functions, thus rival players working without these entries cannot perform correctly in certain applications.  However, company spokesman Dirk Delmartino said that Microsoft informed the commission last year that compliance with their order would mean that certain functions would not work as a result of removing the Media Player files from the original operating system.

“Governments have no business trying to design software,” chided Schatz.  “When the decision was made last year even the EC agreed that the non-Media Player version would cause some applications to fail.  And now that’s exactly what has happened.  Microsoft apparently can’t win: the company has complied and still the EC harasses them.

“Consumers like integration, and punishing companies that offer people what they want while complicating computer usage – allegedly on behalf of consumers – is senseless.  The EC’s decision and its recent actions stymie innovation and undercut intellectual property rights for all successful companies,” Schatz concluded.

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.

 

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