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