FSFE to Microsoft: stop complaining, and start complying!
"After several years of investigation, the original ruling in 2004, and a European Court case lasting close to two years, we now have to conclude that Microsoft never had any intention to comply with the antitrust ruling," comments Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). "We were forced to witness years of delays, stalling and playing for more time during which Microsoft has made no attempt to allow interoperability and competition with its competitors, including Free Software such as Samba."
"It makes a very sad and worrysome statement about the quality and reliability of software engineering at Microsoft if they indeed do not have proper interface specifications and documentation for their considerably complex and organic systems, as Microsoft have repeatedly maintained," explains Jonas Öberg, vice-president of FSFE. "That 'hundreds of Microsoft employees and contractors' [1] were apparently not able to produce this documentation in almost two years further undermines the confidence in Microsoft's technological prowess."
"That Microsoft now questions the competency and integrity of a Trustee they themselves helped appoint is outrageous. All the parties involved in the case found the Trustee showed an intimate competence and understanding," says Carlo Piana, the lawyer representing FSFE on the case: "How do they now dare maintain that he is biased? Because he is not willing to lie against all evidence? We support the Commission all the way, and possibly beyond. And: If Microsoft wanted to know how it could easily comply, they just had to ring Volker Lendecke, member of the Samba Team, one of our technical experts, as we offered them"
"Microsoft has behaved as if they consider themselves above the law and any decision by the European Commission. The aggressive stance they now take towards a Commission that was unbelievably patient with Microsoft further confirms that view," concludes Georg Greve. "Microsoft strove very hard to be the first company to leave the European Commission no choice but to impose daily fines for the first time in European antitrust history. Microsoft deserves to be granted what they worked for so vehemently and be brought to compliance the hard way."
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition - allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness of these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the United States.
www.fsfeurope.org
[1] http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/feb06/02-15EUStatement.mspx