Comments on: House letter: Windows issue 'not a concern' for EU

In a letter to the European Commission, members of Congress say that because the bundling issue was resolved by the Justice Department settlement, it "should not have been an area of concern for the E.U."

[cokeguy17]

Not

The number of issues the US government interferes with that are related to companies not based in the US shows how ridiculous this claim is. About a year ago the US took Kazaa to court in the US for breaking US copyright laws, even though it's not based in the US.

Also, since the DOJ did little to punish Microsoft for its abuse of near monopoly power, it's good that the EU took some initiative. Since Microsoft conducts almost 1/3 of its entire business in Europe, the EU definately has a say whether Microsoft has infringed on European laws.

[Earl Benser]

Europe DOES get it !!!!

Poor little dumb politicians. There isn't one of them who have
any real comprehension of MS"s push for total control of the PC
environment. And Ballmer makes with the crocodile tears crying
'Unfair, unfair' while he and Bill continue bundling the universe
into whatever MS's operating system is called nowadays.

Good luck...

...convincing the European Union of anything remotely related to working cooperatively after the unilateral military moves of the US against Iraq. The US House calling the EU on the floor for this ruling after our moves in Iraq is the single most hypocritical thing that I've seen yet come out of Washington.

Good job guys....

JB

Where were these people in the Lindows case?

If they really feel this strongly, where were they when Lindows business was seriously crippled in the EU by a judgement granted to MS. That ruling was counter to a preliminary finding by the judget in the US.

Considering the size of MS and the terms of the EU judgement, this won't seriously damage MicroSoft. The judgement against Lindows was much more detrimental to that company.

[gedcarroll]

US justice dept is a bunch of Big Mac munching surrender monkeys

Being a European, I am surprised and disgusted by some of the comments from the US dept of justice and politicians on Capital Hill bellyaching that this had already been dealt with by the US courts.

In the eyes of many people this isn't true. Despite a finding of fact against the company, it has been able to substancially influence the remedy process. I think that they sound like paid shills or in the case of the dept of justice a bunch of Big Mac eating surrender monkeys. What abut the interests of other American companies like Sun, IBM, RedHat, Apple or Real Networks?

I would have liked to have seen Microsoft's products being exempted from the 'stateof the art defence' extended to technology companies, full free documentation online of all Microsoft application APIs and opening up data formats such as .DOC, Active X, .PPT, .XLS, C Sharp. This would not only iimprove competition, but also facilitate an ecosystem of developers that could build complementary products without having to use Microsoft development tools and facilitate new products on other platforms such as Linux.

It is no coincidence that Microsoft has donated well and donated often to politicians on Capitol Hill and that it spends millions of dollars on lobbyists. Microsoft has been responsible through its actions for a shocking amount of distruction of value and innovation through anti-competitive practices. The European court judgement does not even take into account outrages like the IP theft alleged in the current Microsoft v Burst Networks case.

The crusade for innovation and competitive markets is the like the war against terror, you are either with us or part of an axis of economic evil. The US needs to decide whether it wants competitive markets or political and economic isolation.

[LinuxRules]

Arrogant Fools

What a bunch of controlling pigs. How dare they dictate
what the Europeans have on their computers!

Seriously bad for business

Microsoft's intereference within our government is seriously bad for business. They need to get out of our governmental affairs - they are not elected, they are a corporation - not government.

These politicians should stay out of corporate affairs as well. It is just another examploe of the influence of money and the suction that exists between politicians, greenbacks, and their "opinions".

Bad day for our government. It is supposed to represent you and me, not a corporate body.

Over and out.