<OT> A bad day in Redmond

[Joel Hammer]

On Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 07:56:49AM -0700, Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Lonni J Friedman wrote:
> <snip>
> >
> >Have any European companies been convicted for monopolistic practices?
> >
> I think the response of the European Commission and the court was driven 
> at least partly by Microsoft having agreed to comply with an agreement 
> reached between the Commission and Microsoft, but then blowing off the 
> agreement.  I think that there may be a perception amongst some 
> Europeans that large American institutions simply blast along and do 
> whatever they want without taking others into consideration.  That 
> certainly fits Microsoft.  I think some large European companies that 
> own half of Europe (Alcatel, Thomson, etc) perhaps are a little smarter 
> in this regard and play the game, which is at least 75% politics, a 

So, basically, the ans. is no.

This is why MS got sued in this country some years ago,
IMHO. MS rivals were much more generous to our politicians,
thus MS got whacked by the dept of justice. MS had made a
point of avoiding politics, from what I read. I also got
the impression, after the trial, that MS was not going to
neglect this aspect of their business again, ie, greasing
the palms of politicians. Does anybody know if this is
so, that is, is MS now an active $$ contributor to our
political circus?

Joel