06.24.09
Gemini version available ♊︎Eye on Microsoft: Assorted Links on EU, Elsevier, NHS
Summary: Spillover of news stories
• MS vs EU: Microsoft does not control Windows anymore
From an European point of view at least they don’t. You see the way the EU and the US deal with monopolies is completely different. In the US the state reaction when faced with a monopolistic company is to break it apart, something that almost happened to Microsoft during their first US antitrust investigation.
The EU doesn’t break up companies, in fact they are usually quite OK with monopolies. For a long time water, power, cable and telecoms have been monopolies in most European countries and most people were OK with that. Of course there is a catch: in almost all cases the government owned a controlling share of those monopolistic companies and actually imposed some policies on them.
Now that most industries have been liberalized the state operate in a similar but subtly different way: You are entitled to operate a monopoly or quasi-monopoly as a private company, but you are expected to let the state have some control over your company in exchange. In other words from an European point of view if Windows is a quasi-monopoly then the state has the right to impose features and restrictions on Windows, as simple as that.
• Elsevier Does a Microsoft with Open Access (see recent scandal [1, 2])
Elsevier Does a Microsoft with Open Access
[...]
I’ve seen these kind of stories so many times in the world of open source, with Microsoft as the main protagonist, that they warm the cockles of my heart when I see them popping up in other areas like open access. Why? Because if a multi-billion pound company like Elsevier is starting to stoop to this kind of tactic, it demonstrates just how profoundly worried it is – and how close open access is to widespread acceptance.
• NHS Gateway Reviews damn £13bn IT decisions (NHS is largely derailed by Microsoft and its suppliers)
Since the start of the programme the British Medical Association, representing doctors, has repeatedly questioned the systems being used and the management of suppliers.
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The Mad Hatter said,
June 28, 2009 at 2:14 pm
It’s amazing how many people and organisations are against openness. Personally, if a company is against openness, I won’t buy their product, and I’ll recommend that others avoid their products.
It’s the same with government. One thing there is to like about the Pirate Party is their openness.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 28th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
It’s probably more to do with Freedom (and rights) than openness, which can mean all sorts of things.