Re: [OT] Microsoft's teeny punishment by the EU

[Christian Schnobrich <schnobs@babylon-kino.de>]

On Mit, 2004-03-24 at 02:16, John Hasler wrote:

> The only part that matters is the part about interfaces and formats.  If
> they are allowed to "license" those rather than publish them the whole
> thing is nearly meaningless.

Somehow you're right, but then again... what could they do?

Forcing MS to simply make it public would effectively nationalize some
of MS' assets -- I doubt that such a step would be legally possible in
the EU.

So what remains? Licensing. If the licenses are too expensive, or in any
other way not acceptable, the competition commision may stage an encore.
That's slow and cumbersome, but I don't think this step may be omitted.

cu,
Schnobs