<OT> A bad day in Redmond

[Tony Alfrey]

Joel Hammer wrote:
> 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?
> 

The answer may be 'no' but that doesn't illuminate the problem.
I wasn't implying that insufficient lobbying was the cause of MS 
problems (although it may be).  I was implying that MS 
bull-in-the-china-shop approach *may* have been.  After agreeing to a 
compromise, and being told repeatedly by the Europeans that they were in 
violation of the compromise, their response has been that they are 
provided "value" to the consumer.  They weren't listening to 
someone/something that had the potential to make their life difficult.
I think they will take the European court system more seriously now.


-- 
Tony Alfrey
tonyalfrey at earthlink.net
"I'd Rather Be Sailing"