Software group seeks role in Microsoft case

Free Software Foundation Europe asks to intervene in European antitrust appeal

By Simon Taylor

November 25, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Recommended

IDG News Service - The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has asked to be allowed to make arguments against Microsoft Corp. in part of its appeal against last year's antitrust ruling against it by the European Union's competition authority, the European Commission, an FSFE attorney said Thursday.

The foundation, along with the team working on Samba open-source software, submitted a formal request to the European Court of Justice on Wednesday to intervene in Microsoft's second appeal against the commission's ruling, said Carlo Piana, a lawyer and member of the FSFE.

The second appeal, lodged in August, is against the commission's decision to order Microsoft to license certain communications protocols for its workgroup server software to other companies. Microsoft has argued that this would mean giving up trade secrets because, once distributed, its code would be freely accessible by third parties without a licence.

The FSFE and Samba counter that without the right to develop products that can interoperate with Microsoft's server software, Samba's software would not be able to compete with Microsoft's products, something the commission hopes to ensure.

If the request to intervene is accepted, the two parties would be able to make written submissions to the court, view submissions from Microsoft and the commission (except those deemed confidential by the court), and take part in oral court hearings.

The two parties have already been made interveners on Microsoft's first appeal against the commission's antitrust decision, made in May 2004. The decision required the company to offer a version of Windows in Europe without its Media Player software, ensure its workgroup server software works properly with other vendors' products, and pay a fine of 497 million ($624 million).

The court has not decided yet whether to admit any further new parties as interveners in the case. In September, three U.S. think tanks, one of which has a Microsoft employee on its board, asked for leave to intervene in the appeal.

The appeals process is expected to be completed sometime in the first half of 2006.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2009 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

Legislation/Regulation

Additional Resources

WHITE PAPER

Do You Know the 7 Steps to Successful Data Migration?

Approximately 60 percent of data migration projects overrun time or budget, while some fail completely. Download this white paper, "Enhancing Your Chance for Successful Data Migration," to learn the critical steps you need to take to execute a data migration project with minimum cost and risk to your business.

WHITE PAPER

Total Cost of Ownership of Server Computing Vs. PCs

Read the Gartner research note to learn why the TCO of a server-based computing deployment used to deliver all applications to users is around 50% lower than that of an unmanaged desktop deployment.

WHITE PAPER

IDC White Paper: Linux in a Global Recession

Economic downturns have a tendency to accelerate emerging technologies, boost the adoption of effective solutions, and punish solutions that are not cost competitive or that are out of synch with industry trends. This IDC White Paper presents the results of an IDC survey of 330 companies in Western Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Americas that measures the receptiveness to Linux and takes into consideration changing views driven by the disruptive economic environment that businesses face today.