Microsoft pays fine imposed by Europe

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The law must be specific and the penalty appropriate

You wrote:
Yes, a company should be able to conduct business as it pleases, provided it doesn't break the law. Once a person or company breaks laws they can't expect to have the same freedoms as they once did.

Yes, there should be penalties for breaking the law.
However, I would qualify that by saying that:
- the law should be specific about what acts will be penalized,
- the actions penalized should not be reasonably expected in a competitive market, and
- the penalty should remedy the offense and conclude when the offense has been remedied.

Concerning servers, Microsoft has said:
- that the law is not specific about what constitutes an offense,
- that their actions have not harmed the market, and
- that the information they are being required to provide their competitors is not just the information Monti says the competitors have been denied, but goes beyond that to include trade secrets that are the main reason for a buyer to choose Microsoft products. They also say that there is no stated end to the period during which they have to continue to provide their trade secrets.

Those would be good points, if true.

To be clear, Microsoft may have acted in a manner subject to legitimate criticism. (Though that may not mean they have done something illegal. Sometimes the law doesn't cover all it should.)

My concern is not to defend Microsoft's actions. It's whether Monti behaved appropriately. The exercise of discretion by an official should be subject to legal challenge, and good precedents should be set by Courts.

Monti, who seems to be the sort of individual who wants to accumulate power, may be using Microsoft as a way to establish principles which, applied to another company, would be considered unfair and an excessive exercise of discretion.

I have no reason to believe that the EU Courts won't provide proper oversight. Until they do, Monti may well have created a risk that he and his successors will gain excessive influence over product design.

These issues are legal, not IT, and are more important than Microsoft's behavior. The fact we can't even read the briefs to make up our own minds means all we can do is wait.

Posted by: Anton Philidor   Posted on: 07/02/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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