EU suspends Microsoft sanctions

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EU may struggle on this one

If I understand this correctly, the EU has said to Microsoft that, because you control the OS of 95% of new computer sold, that you should not be able to use that monopoly to create a monopoly in streaming media.

Microsoft's counter is that they want to guarantee that every Windows computer sold has Media Player on it.

Both issues could have been addressed with a better remedy in by the EU in the first place. They should have mandated that any streaming media server and client that holds more than, say, 2% market share must support a particular standard, lets say MPEG2 or MPEG4. And support must be equal for both the mandated standard and any other closed, proprietary standard. The mandated standard must include a full set of APIs so that any client can be used with any server provided they both meet the standard.

This allows MS to sell Media Player client and server as they do now, and ensures they can't lock-out competitors with their closed, proprietary APIs and file formats.

Or would that have been too simple?

Posted by: Fred Fredrickson   Posted on: 06/27/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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