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								    <title>FSFE in Samba case: Microsoft's defiance backfired</title>

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								  <h1>FSFE in Samba case: Microsoft's defiance backfired</h1>


								  <p>Luxembourg, May 25 - FSFE played a key role at a Microsoft hearing

								  before the European Union's General Court on Tuesday, helping explain

								  the intricacies of Free Software servers.</p>


								  <p>The hearing was called to consider Microsoft's challenge to a EUR 899

								  million fine imposed by the European Commission in 2008. Microsoft had

								  failed to carry out remedies imposed for its violation of EU antitrust

								  law. A ruling is expected for later in the year.</p>


								  <p>Microsoft was required to provide interoperability information that

								  would enable others to hook up to its products so they could compete

								  with its workgroup servers. Key among those was the Samba team, which

								  is the only surviving competitor in the workgroup server market. Only

								  after a European Union court acted in 2007 to uphold nearly all of the

								  Commission's 2004 decision did Microsoft finally meet the Commission's

								  requirement to comply.</p>


								  <p>"In order to compete, the Samba team only needed the mundane

								  information about how Microsoft computers talk to each other," said

								  Tridgell. "There is nothing innovative here. All the innovative bits

								  are either already published by Microsoft's own researchers, or are

								  contained in the Microsoft program source code – and we have no

								  interest in seeing that. The innovation certainly isn't in the

								  protocol specifications."</p>


								  <p>Tridgell appeared before a panel headed by Chamber President Nicholas

								  James Forwood of Britain, which also included judges Franklin Dehousse

								  of Belgium and Juraj Schwarcz of Slovakia. Microsoft, the Commission,

								  and outside intervenors on both sides were also represented. FSFE and

								  the Samba team were represented by lawyer Carlo Piana.</p>


								  <p>The problems date back to the Commission's 2004 decision that

								  Microsoft should release interoperability information. After that, the

								  company played for time and waited three years to comply with the

								  Commission's demands. Explaining the significance of Samba for a

								  competitive software market, Chamber President Forwood said: “Samba is

								  the funnel through which the effects on the market will be produced.”</p>


								  <p>Microsoft contended that the information it had to provide was

								  valuable and innovative, and originally sought to charge high prices

								  for it. Tridgell demonstrated that the valuable information had

								  already been revealed by Microsoft in research papers and other public

								  fora. By contrast, the information that Samba team needed to

								  interoperate with computers running Microsoft Windows was neither

								  original nor innovative.</p>


								  <p>“Microsoft didn't keep this information secret because it was

								  valuable; the information was only valuable because it was kept

								  secret,” Piana told the Court on behalf of FSFE. He said it let

								  Microsoft preserve its dominant position, because no other software

								  was able to talk to the company's systems. “The company used these

								  three years to further entrench its dominant position in the market.”</p>


								  <p>“Microsoft is acting like a gambler who doubled up on a losing bet,

								  and now wants his money back,” said Nicholas Kahn, the representative

								  of the European Commission. By waiting three years before complying

								  with the Commission's decision while the clock on the fine was

								  ticking, Microsoft set the stakes very high – and finally lost.</p>


								  <p>“In this case, Europe's competition regulators have shown their

								  bite. We hope that the court will uphold the fine and make it clear

								  that companies in Europe have to play by the rules,” said Karsten

								  Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. “FSFE does

								  many things to help foster the growth of Free Software. We're proud to

								  help make the case for Free Software in a forum such as this, where we

								  believe we are providing a public service.”</p>


								  <p>Workgroup servers handle tasks used in small groups – printing,

								  signing in, and allocating permission to access particular files. The

								  Samba project not only provides an alternative to Microsoft's

								  workgroup server. It has come up with an alternative that is better in

								  many respects. For example, the Samba team used the trivial

								  information provided by Microsoft to build an innovative system that

								  runs on very small, cheap computers -- something that Microsoft's

								  software cannot do.</p>


								  <p>“The hearing established that Free Software is central to restoring

								  competition in the workgroup server market,” says Piana. “Everyone

								  agreed to this, including the judges. This case matters because it

								  highlights that interoperability is more important than a company's

								  interest in keeping its dominant position.”</p>


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								  <tags>

								    <tag key="front-page"/>

								    <tag key="samba"/>

								    <tag key="european-court-justice"/>

								    <tag key="swpat">Software Patents</tag>

								    <tag key="microsoft"/>

								    <tag key="microsoft"/>

								    <tag key="european-union"/>


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								<translator>mdim</translator>

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