12.14.07

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Convicted Monopolist Reportedly Threatens to Sue to Save Its Monopoly (Updated)

Posted in Europe, Formats, Law, Microsoft, Open XML, OpenDocument, Standard at 10:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Talk about irony. The company that faces risk of lawsuits for its endless OOXML corruptions may now be using lawsuit threats as a weapon against ODF.

It is hard to believe, but Heise reports that Microsoft was threatening the Dutch government to sue it before the European Court of Juctice which would be a competition case.

Steve Ballmer on ODF The item is worth reading as a whole, especially for context. It truly takes some nerve. Remember the writings about Microsoft's perception that it's above the law. █

More on the recent developments in Holland:

Update: Here is another good writeup on this issue:

There is some good humour in the announcement too – from the Redmond based owner of much of the world’s Intellectual Monopoly:

… he said the company [Microsoft] was worried about and opposed other aspects of the Dutch policy, especially the provision that agencies should prefer open source.

“We think it’s not in the best interest of the wider software market to single out one model for endorsement like this,” he said.

HUH? What is the “wider software market” he is referring to? Oh, of course it’s theirs… What complete twaddle. Why can’t they just say ‘we don’t like it because we are going to lose business’. Or even better, make improved products that compete on a level playing field? Why spin their message with such meaningless drivel that it only exacerbates our bad opinion of them?

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2 Comments

DOUGman said,

December 15, 2007 at 1:27 am

You know, with MS wasting so much human effort. They should just adopt ODF into their programs and continue on developing. Talk about a waste of time, they are just spinning their wheels and never win.

D.
Roy Schestowitz said,

December 15, 2007 at 1:55 am

hey should just adopt ODF into their programs and continue on developing

Stephen Walli, who used to work for Microsoft, opines that Microsoft will inevitably need to support ODF (and they will).

The sad part is that even if the ISO vote actually goes in Microsoft’s favour, it still won’t matter. It buys them a few years of market ignorance at best. This entire two year event is one for the standards text books on how not to respond to a business threatening standard. In the end, Microsoft will need to implement ODF natively. They don’t know it yet, nor do they understand why, but it is just a matter of time.