Microsoft turns to U.S. for EU Antitrust Help

[RaZoR1394]

         An anonymous reader writes "The NY times reports that Microsoft has asked U.S. goverment officials [CC] to intervene on their behalf in the EU antitrust case. The US (through diplomatic channels) has asked the court to be 'fair'." From the article: "Microsoft has complained frequently in recent months that it has been denied the right to a fair defense in the continuing antitrust case with the European Commission. It has also accused the commission of collaborating with its rivals in the software industry and denying it access to what it contends are vital documents it needs to prepare its defense. A memo written by unidentified government officials in Washington stated that Microsoft's complaints raise 'substantial concerns' about the way Microsoft is being treated, according to a person close to the commission who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the memo."

http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/31/1328249

[Jack2000]

ahhaaha
To be 'fair'...?

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Ya think the US will aid M$ ? Probably ... does the US have enough power over the EU to dismiss all charges filed against M$ ? Yes ... Does that suck balls ? Yup

[Jack2000]

Cia
?

[inane]

I don't think that the US has that kind of sway over the EU... in fact I think that the EC will come down even harder on M$ now BECAUSE of the request. The EU knew the US was pro M$ BEFORE they even started the antitrust investigation.

[DavidB]

The writing is on the wall. Do you really think the European Union, Latin America, India and China will all continue to suck up to Microsoft? Microsoft remains extraordinarily powerful yet equaly fragile at the same time. All it would take to topple it is a single political or social event, a competitor that's a little better than Microshaft's Windows, an accident or terrorist attack...

[piratePenguin]

a competitor that's a little better than Microshaft's Windows

They're a monopoly. The competion (Ubuntu, Mac OS X, Debian, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Opera), that BTW is already in many ways better than MS products, won't be enough to take them down. We already have products better than MS's. People just aren't using the right tool for the right job, they're using what everyone else uses for the same job.

I don't expect MS will topple over in any short period of time. But their grip will loosen, which would do me just fine.

[inane]

[OFFTOPIC]What I find funny is that even though NT is DESIGNED especially for IA32s, a UNIX based OS can still perform that much better. HA!!![/OFFTOPIC]