Published in April 30th, 2006
Below is my summary of last week’s Microsoft hearing at the CFI in Luxembourg. You can read the entire column here.Â
The European Court of First Instance (CFI) buzzed with energy this week as Microsoft and the European Commission squared off over a damaging 2004 ruling that, along with a fine of 497 million [...]
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Published in April 30th, 2006
On the last day of the MS hearing at the European Court of First Instance, the topic du jour was the record fine the EC charged MS. Not surprisingly, MS wanted the fine dropped and the EC wanted to keep it in place. And while 497 million euros is a lot of dough, [...]
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Published in April 27th, 2006
It’s day 4 of the Microsoft hearing and today the Judges asked some really great questions about interoperability. Judge Cooke, whose Irish accent comes and goes, really cut through the blather on both sides of the argument and got to the core of the issue. The basic issue is that in 2000, Microsoft [...]
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Published in April 26th, 2006
Today was day 3 of the Microsoft hearing in Luxembourg and, as I noted in my last post, the focus switched to MS’s intellectual property and whether or not the company should be forced to share it with rivals. When most people are presented with the idea of government taking one company’s property and [...]
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Published in April 26th, 2006
Yesterday, the CFI wrapped up its examination of the EC’s order to force Microsoft to remove 200 files from Windows to create the wildly unpopular Windows XPN. Now that the Court is done looking at the EC’s attempt to design software code, today everyone is focused on the issue of Microsoft’s intellectual property. [...]
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Published in April 25th, 2006
Today, everyone at the Court of First Instance noticed something that I think is a really huge difference between this Microsoft hearing and the original trial that occurred in the US. That is, the judges today are VERY familiar with the technology involved in the dispute. Use of the Internet has grown significantly [...]
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Published in April 24th, 2006
Today’s hearing at the European Court of First Instance (CFI) focused on the Windows Media Player. Below are some key ideas that came up during the arguments.
On RealPlayer:
Some groups like ECIS – the European Committee for Interoperable Systems – attempted to argue that RealPlayer is dead. Their press release said this:
“Just as [Microsoft’s] [...]
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Published in April 24th, 2006
This afternoon, the European Commission’s (EC) attorney made his case. One of the things he said was that Microsoft put its unbundled version of windows on the market and contrary to their claims, there is no evidence that it is malfunctioning. It’s true there’s no evidence of malfunction, but it’s also true that there’s [...]
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Published in April 24th, 2006
This morning, Microsoft’s attorney said that the company is under the gun for what he called an “efficiency offense.†That is, because MS kept improving their operating system to work well with media products for the consumer, somehow that is an abuse. He’s right that that’s what Microsoft is facing, and it’s also [...]
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Published in April 24th, 2006
The Court of First Instance (CFI) just finished its first morning session where the lordships (really – that’s what they call the judges) heard Microsoft attorneys and supporters discuss why the company shouldn’t be forced to remove code from its operating system. As someone who closely followed the US antitrust proceedings, I have to [...]
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Published in April 23rd, 2006
I’m in Luxembourg today to watch the Microsoft hearing before the Court of First Instance. Two years ago, the European Commission found Microsoft guilty of abusing its dominant market position and imposed a record €497m ($613m) fine and ordered it to disclose key elements of its IP and offer a striped down version of [...]
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Published in April 21st, 2006
Last year, Congress passed the Real ID Act, a law that calls for standardization of drivers’ licenses across the country by 2008. The current reaction from states like California and New Hampshire raises questions about how a national ID system would affect civil liberties, putting welcome pressure on the federal government.
California might have a reputation [...]
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Published in April 11th, 2006
Below is the press release announcing a study I just co-authored on cable franchise issues. I’m reproducing the entire release below b/c it’s a good summary of the paper and why you should read it.
New Study says Consumers are Paying Too Much for Cable TV
Consumers are paying too much for cable services, a problem [...]
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Published in April 10th, 2006
Despite national legislation, spam remains a menace that clogs e-mail inboxes and costs Internet Service Providers millions of dollars. One California company is trying to stem the flow of unwanted mail, but California legislators are threatening to stand in the way.
AOL has partnered with Goodmail Systems to offer its customers a service called “CertifiedEmail,” which [...]
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Published in April 4th, 2006
Scientists have figured out how to rebuild bladders, a sign that more complex organs can be grown in the future. This is great news for those of us who are still healthy and hoping that when we’re old, it will be easy to replace body parts as they wear out.
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