Comment Re:When do I get to be a multinational corp? (Score 1) 330
From Wiki:
>> In 2003–2004, the European Commission investigated the bundling of Windows Media Player into Windows, a practice which rivals complained was destroying the market for their own products.[citation needed] Negotiations between Microsoft and the Commission broke down in March 2004, and the company was subsequently handed down a record fine of €497 million ($666 million) for its breaches of EU competition law.[citation needed] Separate investigations into alleged abuses of the server market were also ongoing at the same time.[citation needed] On December 22, 2004, the European Court decided that the measures imposed on Microsoft by the European Commission would not be delayed, as was requested by Microsoft while waiting for the appeal.[citation needed] Microsoft has since paid a €497 million fine, shipped versions of Windows without Windows Media Player, and licensed many of the protocols used in its products to developers in countries within the European Economic Area. However, the European Commission has charactized the much delayed protocol licensing as unreasonable, called Microsoft "non-compliant" and still violating antitrust law in 2007, and said that its RAND terms were above market prices; in addition, they said software patents covering the code "lack significant innovation", which Microsoft and the EC had agreed would determine licensing fees.[13] Microsoft responded by saying, that other government agencies had found "considerable innovation".[14][15] Microsoft appealed the facts and ruling to the European Court of First Instance with hearings in September 2006.
I am failing to see how this relates to the current argument at hand.
