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5.2 KiB
HTML
117 lines
5.2 KiB
HTML
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<html newsdate="2011-05-25">
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<title>FSFE in Samba case: Microsoft's defiance backfired</title>
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<body>
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<h1>FSFE in Samba case: Microsoft's defiance backfired</h1>
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<p newsteaser="yes">Luxembourg, May 25 - FSFE played a key role at a Microsoft hearing
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before the European Union's General Court on Tuesday, helping explain
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the intricacies of Free Software servers.</p>
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<p>The hearing was called to consider Microsoft's challenge to a EUR 899
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million fine imposed by the European Commission in 2008. Microsoft had
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failed to carry out remedies imposed for its violation of EU antitrust
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law. A ruling is expected for later in the year.</p>
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<p>Microsoft was required to provide interoperability information that
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would enable others to hook up to its products so they could compete
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with its workgroup servers. Key among those was the Samba team, which
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is the only surviving competitor in the workgroup server market. Only
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after a European Union court acted in 2007 to uphold nearly all of the
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Commission's 2004 decision did Microsoft finally meet the Commission's
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requirement to comply.</p>
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<p>"In order to compete, the Samba team only needed the mundane
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information about how Microsoft computers talk to each other," said
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Tridgell. "There is nothing innovative here. All the innovative bits
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are either already published by Microsoft's own researchers, or are
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contained in the Microsoft program source code – and we have no
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interest in seeing that. The innovation certainly isn't in the
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protocol specifications."</p>
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<p>Tridgell appeared before a panel headed by Chamber President Nicholas
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James Forwood of Britain, which also included judges Franklin Dehousse
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of Belgium and Juraj Schwarcz of Slovakia. Microsoft, the Commission,
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and outside intervenors on both sides were also represented. FSFE and
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the Samba team were represented by lawyer Carlo Piana.</p>
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<p>The problems date back to the Commission's 2004 decision that
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Microsoft should release interoperability information. After that, the
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company played for time and waited three years to comply with the
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Commission's demands. Explaining the significance of Samba for a
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competitive software market, Chamber President Forwood said: “Samba is
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the funnel through which the effects on the market will be produced.”</p>
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<p>Microsoft contended that the information it had to provide was
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valuable and innovative, and originally sought to charge high prices
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for it. Tridgell demonstrated that the valuable information had
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already been revealed by Microsoft in research papers and other public
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fora. By contrast, the information that Samba team needed to
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interoperate with computers running Microsoft Windows was neither
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original nor innovative.</p>
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<p>“Microsoft didn't keep this information secret because it was
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valuable; the information was only valuable because it was kept
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secret,” Piana told the Court on behalf of FSFE. He said it let
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Microsoft preserve its dominant position, because no other software
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was able to talk to the company's systems. “The company used these
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three years to further entrench its dominant position in the market.”</p>
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<p>“Microsoft is acting like a gambler who doubled up on a losing bet,
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and now wants his money back,” said Nicholas Kahn, the representative
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of the European Commission. By waiting three years before complying
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with the Commission's decision while the clock on the fine was
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ticking, Microsoft set the stakes very high – and finally lost.</p>
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<p>“In this case, Europe's competition regulators have shown their
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bite. We hope that the court will uphold the fine and make it clear
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that companies in Europe have to play by the rules,” said Karsten
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Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. “FSFE does
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many things to help foster the growth of Free Software. We're proud to
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help make the case for Free Software in a forum such as this, where we
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believe we are providing a public service.”</p>
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<p>Workgroup servers handle tasks used in small groups – printing,
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signing in, and allocating permission to access particular files. The
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Samba project not only provides an alternative to Microsoft's
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workgroup server. It has come up with an alternative that is better in
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many respects. For example, the Samba team used the trivial
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information provided by Microsoft to build an innovative system that
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runs on very small, cheap computers -- something that Microsoft's
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software cannot do.</p>
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<p>“The hearing established that Free Software is central to restoring
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competition in the workgroup server market,” says Piana. “Everyone
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agreed to this, including the judges. This case matters because it
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highlights that interoperability is more important than a company's
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interest in keeping its dominant position.”</p>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag>front-page</tag>
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<tag>Samba</tag>
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<tag>ECJ</tag>
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<tag content="Software Patents">patents</tag>
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<tag>Microsoft</tag>
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<tag>Microsoft</tag>
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<tag>eu</tag>
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</tags>
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<translator>mdim</translator>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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