118 lines
3.9 KiB
HTML
118 lines
3.9 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE - FSFE and the antitrust case against Microsoft</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<a id="moreinfo" href="/activities/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.html">Microsoft against free competition</a>
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<h1>FSFE and the antitrust case against Microsoft</h1>
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<p class="background">
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Europe's most important antitrust action in the software field
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was the European Commission's case against Microsoft, running
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from 2004 to 2007. FSFE participated as a
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third party, providing expert input on Free Software,
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interoperability and competition. We worked closely with the
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Samba team, which develops a Free Software alternative to
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Microsoft's proprietary workgroup server.
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</p>
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<p class="background">
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The European Commission imposed a record fine of EUR 497 million on
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Microsoft. In 2012, the European Court of Justice ruled that
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Microsoft would have to pay another EUR 860 million for failing
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to comply with the Commission's decision.
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</p>
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<h2>FSFE represented developers' interests</h2>
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<p>
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FSFE played two key roles in this case. We represented
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the interests of Free Software developers. In our
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official role as Intervener, we persuaded the European
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Commission to reject any royalty requirements that
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would be incompatible with Free Software. We also
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argued constantly for the publication of useful
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technical documentation and against lock-out of Free
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Software based on arbitrary manipulations of formats
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and standards.
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</p>
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<p>
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FSFE's most important achievement was to make sure that Free
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Software developers could actually use the interoperability
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information which Microsoft was forced to release to build
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competing products.
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</p>
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<h2>Incorruptible</h2>
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<p>
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FSFE was one of only two public interest organisation which
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Microsoft could not buy off. The case began with many
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companies giving testimony of Microsoft's breaches of
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antitrust regulation, but one by one these companies
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made deals with Microsoft and withdrew from the
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case. FSFE and SIIA were the only two organisations
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that pursued this case from start to finish. We were
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later joined by ECIS, who did extraordinary
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work. Without this sustained support, the Commission
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would probably not pursued the case as decisively as
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it did.
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</p>
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<h2>Getting interoperability information</h2>
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<p>
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At the heart of this case was that the European
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Commission would require Microsoft to publish
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interoperability information. This type of information
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is necessary for non-Microsoft software, such as Samba
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running on GNU/Linux, to communicate and function
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fully within existing client-server Microsoft
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networks. <i>The interoperability information was not
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secret because it was valuable. It was valuable only
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because it was secret.</i>
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</p>
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<h2>Ruling confirmed at all levels</h2>
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<p>
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Supported by the persistent work by Carlo Piana,
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Andrew Tridgell, Jeremy Allison, Volker Lendecke,
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Georg Greve and other people acting on FSFE and
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Samba's behalf, the Commission's decision that
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Microsoft had breached competition rules was upheld at
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the highest level.
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</p>
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<h2>Interoperable applications now possible</h2>
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<p>
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Information has now been published and is being used
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by the developers of Samba and many other projects to
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improve network interoperability for Free Software
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applications. This facilitates migration to Free
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Software. The court rulings have also set important
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precedents as to what business practices are
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considered acceptable.
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</p>
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<address>
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Free Software Foundation Europe<br/>
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Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin, Germany<br/>
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E-Mail: contact@fsfe.org<br/>
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Phone: +49-30-27595290<br/>
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http://fsfe.org/activities/ms-vs-eu<br/>
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</address>
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</body>
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</html>
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