Microsft in Europor:
> In March 2004 the European Union brought antitrust legal action against the company, citing it abused its dominance with the Windows OS, resulting in a judgment of €497 million ($613 million) and requiring Microsoft to produce new versions of Windows XP without Windows Media Player:
What the fuck is their problem?
They fined them literally because they're successful. I would be fucking publicly furious if I was Steve Ballmer then
They're doing the same with Google, too.
Did any other search engines exist in 2004?
How the fuck is it a antitrust argument if they have a monopoly simply because there's no competition?
good
literally the only thing I admire the EU for is this
they keep big companies in check and are not afraid to fine them out the ass if they try any bullshit
>antitrust policies to punish abusive monopolies are bad
what other interesting snippets can you provide?
Aah yes and here we see the American thanking his corporate masters for the big cock in his ass
Wait, why do you even care about what happens in that technologically backward shithole anyway? As long as it doesn't affect software sales here in the US, it really doesn't matter what Microsoft sells in the third world.
>software sales
Lmao who the fuck buys software?
Heterosexuals.
Read OP
>They fined them literally because they're successful.
So you have to deliberately make something shitty so you don't get fined?
>brazilian understanding of antitrust and economics in general
lmao come on now chimp boy, adults are talking
you have no idea what monopoly and anti-trust is do you
en.wikipedia.org
Europeans are too retarded to develop an operating system. Seriously, no respectable part of the world should ever live in a reality where non-indigenously developed operating systems dominate their domestic markets.
to put it simply EU does stick it up to the big guy
the big guy can take the losses anyday, but you let the big guy win too much and that kills all your own independent european startups
Illegal binding, look it up.
Microsoft has been found guilty in a US antitrust case before.
People like this retard are why society is going to shit
yes other search engines existed
AskJeeves, Yahoo... nowadays theres a few alternatives to google too like Yandex.
From memory: a brave judge in America decides that Microsoft has misused their dominant market position and has to be split into a company that makes Windows and a company that makes Office. Later the decision is overturned because Microsoft has bought the USA.
>Seriously, no respectable part of the world should ever live in a reality where non-indigenously developed operating systems dominate their domestic markets.
This. At least the Chinese understand this well. Technological autarky is a very important thing.
Stick to cannibalism uma delicia. Leave law to the humans
Wake up and smell the revolution. Europe will bring FULL WORLD COMMUNISM to planet Earth within 10 years.
Thanks EU!
didnt some Scandinavian invent linux?
Yeah. Linus Torvalds to be exact.
Finland is not Scandinavian.
he's a fennoswede so close enough.
Linus is a fenno-swede tho. And you could say Finland is Scandinavian, the same way Portugal is mediterranean. Semantics.
>not WinXP
literally the only game where i have that problem, otherwise id disable WMP entirely
just press start, type "windows features" and click on "Activate or deactivate Windows Features"
check Windows Media Player
So Windows Media Player is a separate product from Windows, illegally tied by Microsoft, while Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, Windows Defender, etc, are not? It's just another fucking feature for their operating system. Hell, you can even disable it.
Can you explain a retard like me what differentiates WMP from the other programs above?
I consider antitrust laws a good measure to regulate the market, but this one in specific is just retarded.
this one example*
>Internet Explorer
The EU also got them on this before.
Stop trolling. Also I'm out so should you write a reply to my post I won't be here to read it.
I'd agree completely if it's something like pic related. The whole point is that you can disable it and use whatever the fuck browser or music and video player you want. Besides, it's a fucking feature in an operating system, not a different product, like this faggot
said.
different times, different context
The problem with Microsoft wasn't the software bundling, it was their aggressive and malicious mergers and acquisitions that made serious startups borderline impossible. They're no longer alone in this regard however.
FREE AS IN FREE SPEECH
I agree with both of these. But what the fuck is wrong with fucking WMP and IE? They're literally features, not different products. Why don't they fine them for Windows Explorer, Windows bootloader or NT?
I think the IE was before web standards properly existed and Microsoft were using the lack of organisation to try and establish a monopoly of websites that were only IE compatible.
If it's for a reason like this, not because it was shipped "along" Windows, I agree completely with the measure taken. But was Microsoft trying to make some media compatible with WMP only? .wma and .wmv were always readable by other players.
This. To this day there are websites and formats that are still only compatible with IE. I got fucked by one from my uni a little while ago myself.
Here's their reasoning for why WMP was ebil and not just a feature
>The Commission Decision finds that streaming media players and PC operating systems are two separate products (rejecting Microsoft’s argument that WMP is an integral part of Windows).
>The Decision first sets out that although Microsoft has been tying its media player with Windows for some time, there remains today separate consumer demand for stand-alone media players, distinguishable from demand for PC operating systems.
>Secondly, a number of vendors develop and supply media players on a stand-alone basis.
>Thirdly, Microsoft itself develops and distributes versions of its WMP for other PC operating systems.
>Finally, Microsoft promotes WMP in direct competition with third party media players.
eur-lex.europa.eu
And here's why including IE by default is ebil
>The Commission is concerned that through the tying, Microsoft shields Internet Explorer from head to head competition with other browsers which is detrimental to the pace of product innovation and to the quality of products which consumers ultimately obtain.
>In addition, the Commission is concerned that the ubiquity of Internet Explorer creates artificial incentives for content providers and software developers to design websites or software primarily for Internet Explorer which ultimately risks undermining competition and innovation in the provision of services to consumers.
europa.eu
You must be one of those wh*Te Brazilians I hear so much about.
Because they're monopolisers who abuse the world and destroy/inhibit competition, this is obvious, they do it everywhere. They're scum. Though in the EU's case, it's probably more a matter of control.