[FSFE PR][EN] Commission to Microsoft: Preventing interoperability has a price

[John Doe]

On 7/12/06, Beatriz Busaniche <bea at fsfla.org> wrote:
> Noticias desde nuestra hermana FSF Europa.
> Abrazos
>
>
> http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/press-release/2006q3/000147.html
>
> Commission to Microsoft: Preventing interoperability has a price
>
> FSFE welcomes the decision by the European Commission.
>
> "Microsoft is still as far from allowing competition as it was on the
> day of the original Commission ruling in 2004. All proposals made by
> Microsoft were deliberately exclusive of Samba, the major remaining
> competitor. In that light, the fines do not seem to come early, and
> they do not seem high," comments Carlo Piana, Milano based lawyer of
> the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) regarding the decision of
> the European Commission to fine Microsoft 1.5 million Euro per day
> retroactively from 16. December 2005, totalling 280.5 million Euro.
> Should Microsoft not come into compliance until the end of July 2006,
> the daily fines could be doubled.
>
> These fines are a reaction to Microsofts continued lack of compliance
> with the European Commission decision to make interoperability
> information available to competitors as a necessary precondition to
> allow fair competition. FSFE has supported the European Commission
> from the start of the suit in 2001.
>
> Having made similar statements during the hearing, Microsoft commented
> to the press last week [1] that 300 engineers are currently working
> "day and night" to fulfill the request of the public authorities.
>
> "If we are to believe Microsofts numbers, it appears that 120.000
> person days are not enough to document its own software. This is a
> task that good software developers do during the development of
> software, and a hallmark of bad engineering," comments Georg Greve,
> president of the FSFE. "For users, this should be a shock: Microsoft
> apparently does not know the software that controls 95% of all desktop
> computers on this planet. Imagine General Motors releasing a press
> statement to the extent that even though they had 300 of their best
> engineers work on this for two years, they cannot provide
> specifications for the cars they built."
>
> Many companies run a mixed network of Windows, GNU/Linux, Unix and
> other operating systems (OS). The Windows products understand each
> other, and all the other operating systems can talk to each other. It
> is the connection between the two worlds that was deliberatly
> obfuscated a few years ago by Microsoft, and that the Samba project is
> working on.
>
> During the main hearing at the European Court of Justice toward the
> end of April, the president and founder of Samba Dr. Andrew Tridgell
> presented the work of the Samba Team work. Among other things, he
> demonstrated a box for roughly 100 EUR. If Microsoft did not hide its
> interoperability information, that box would already be capable of
> administrating hundreds of users. A small 100 EUR box could do the
> same task that is currently done by an entire PC for 1.000,- EUR.
>
> "Dr. Tridgell demonstrated easily what kind of innovation is locked
> out of the market by Microsofts refusal to interoperate with other
> vendors. In this case, the price of that refusal are domain
> controllers that are ten times more expensive than necessary, and the
> price is paid by everyone: private businesses, public authorities and
> society as a whole," Georg Greve summarises.
>
> He concludes: "When will society refuse to legitimise such business
> practices by buying from companies that exhibit such behaviour?"
>
> [1] http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/07/04/216779/Microsoft+working+%e2%80%9cday+and+night%e2%80%9d+to+meet+EC+deadline.htm
>
> About the Free Software Foundation Europe:
>
>   The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charitable
>   non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free
>   Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may
>   participate in a digital society. Therefore the Freedoms to use,
>   copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free
>   Software definition- allow equal participation in the information
>   age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software
>   politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting
>   development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE.  The
>   FSFE was founded in 2001 as the European sister organisation of the
>   Free Software Foundation in the United States.
>
>   Further information: http://fsfeurope.org
> --

Es algo reconfortante.

Hace que uno sienta orgullo de pertenecer a un movimiento como este.

Nos alimenta "espiritualmente" ya que lo sentimos como un logro propio
de todos y de cada uno de los que aportamos dentro de nuestras
posibilidades a que el movimiento funcione.

Nos da esperanzas :)

Bueno más o menos eso es lo sentí cuando me enteré de esto y leí al
respecto desde varias fuentes.

Saludos

-- 
   .''`.   John Doe
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