05.24.11

Amid Decision on €899,000,000 Fine, ITSSD Goes Batting for Microsoft

Posted in Europe, Microsoft, Patents, Standard at 2:01 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

[Note: written this morning (i.e. before the hearing)]

Summary: The lawyers/lobbyingmeisters come out in defence of Microsoft almost unsurprisingly, coinciding of course with a very important hearing about Microsoft’s abuses

THE FSFE says that it will speak to the European Court of Justice regarding Microsoft. From their new page:

Fresh action in the European Commission’s antitrust proceedings against Microsoft: On May 24, the European Court of Justice conducts a hearing on Microsoft’s appeal against the fine. FSFE has participated in the case for a decade and will intervene on the Commission’s behalf.

Carlo Piana will be there too and he announces this in Identi.ca/Twitter while “Microsoft tries to weasel out of big EU fine,” as one reader of ours put it. “This would be in connection with Microsoft’s action claiming that the 899 million euro fine the EU Commission ordered in 2008 was excessive,” explains Groklaw. “The Commission found that, prior to October of 2007 Microsoft charged unreasonable prices for access to indispensable interoperability information.” Here is what Piana wrote:

Ready to fly to Luxembourg. #FSFE and #samba in court for setting the record straight on #interoperability.

There is some funny stuff going on right now. The "interoperability" propaganda (with patents and RAND, not free standards) gets pushed by some mysterious groups and lobbyists whom we never saw before. “Glyn Moody questions a curious Guardian article about standards and discovers an insulting Microsoft think tank,” claims a reader of ours, pointing at this article. We are not sure if it’s Microsoft behind the spin, but it is rather predictable that Microsoft at least played a role (Microsoft is generally funding think tanks to lie). As Moody shows, the messenger has a very dodgy reputation. He writes: “Let’s see what else concerns the ITSSD. How about this?”

U.S. Navy Had a Whale of a Job Fending Off Green Lawfare in NRDC v. Winter Case

In a newly released Washington Legal Foundation working paper, international lawyer Lawrence Kogan describes the U.S. Navy’s challenge in convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a green injunction effectively preventing critical U.S. Naval sonar training exercises from taking place off the Southern California coast. The injunction had been issued on the grounds that the Navy’s failure to prepare a full environmental impact statement could trigger possible but scientifically unverifiable discomfort to beaked whales.

“The green group and California State pleadings the Supreme Court reviewed in Winter provide a bird’s eye view of continuing activist efforts to rewrite U.S. environmental regulatory law from the bench in pacifist Europe’s socialist image,” emphasizes Kogan.”

You see, it’s getting worse: those “pacifist” “socialist” Europeans are trying to protect the whales from pain – whatever next?

Well, how about this [.pdf]?

Congress Should Do its ‘Homework’ Before Adopting Costly Euro-Style Energy/Climate Change Rules

Crafted by unelected bureaucrats, environmental activists and socialist party ‘kingpins’ and supported by most European leaders, such policies have focused more on promoting sustainable development via consumer and business sacrifices than on securing desperately-needed regional energy supplies.

Yes, it’s those crafty socialist party ‘kingpins’ again – probably all cheese-eating surrender monkeys – aided and abetted by environmental activists, who have the audacity to promote “sustainable development via consumer and business sacrifices”: can you imagine it?

Yes, I think lots of caution is required here….

Did Microsoft liaise with ITSSD? Here it is lobbying for Microsoft interests at WIPO [PDF]. They even have a blogspot blog, just like Microsoft Florian. █

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