Microsoft vs. Europe and the law

First, you have a company that has really not grown or broken new ground in four years — Microsoft. Want proof? Count the number of employees, read the reviews of its products or simply watch it lose market share to Apple and Linux-based machines.

Second, you have companies — like the man who invented the wiper delay on your car who took 15 years to beat Ford, which stole his invention — that are determined that the almighty Microsoft needs to pay for programs and inventions it stole.

And third, you have governments that want to enforce anti-trust laws — laws that originated in the United States of America with Teddy Roosevelt and that we, because of corrupt lobbying forces, seem reluctant to enforce any more (think health care, gas pricing and airlines, for starters).

Microsoft has been ordered by a European court of appeals to adhere to the first ruling against it for patent and code infringement in versions of Word 2003 and 2007. What does this mean? Microsoft is prohibited from selling any more copies of the programs in Europe. Period. Oh, and it has to pay a $290 million fine.

Of course, Microsoft is already claiming that the “little used feature� will be removed forthwith so it can sell those products and the much-anticipated Word 2010 now being released in beta versions. “Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date,� it said.

Who sued them? A small Canadian company called i4i. This small company tried, but failed, to get a U.S. court to adhere to the injunction. As I said, anti-trust justice is dead in America. If you are rich, if you are powerful, as Microsoft is, you can control the law.

And that brings us to the other Microsoft problem: Internet access. Microsoft has lost so many times in European courts (and by extension of those cases in America) that it finally allowed you to have Microsoft as your operating system but also allows you to use Mozilla, Safari or any other Internet browser you want to run.

But in Europe, they are still pursuing the matter. Why? Because all the Microsoft programs require you to have Internet Explorer on your computer for updates — and Internet Explorer by Microsoft needs updating for security reasons almost daily. In other words, you can put another program on your computer, that you own and operate, but Microsoft will control how you use your computer. In addition, Internet Explorer gathers information …

All of which brings me to the point here. Just as AT&T was an almost-monopoly that over-stayed its welcome in Washington and was broken up, so too Microsoft has overstayed its welcome in Europe already. Europe does not have the mechanism to break up Microsoft, but it can and seems determined to insist Microsoft plays fairly and in accord with the law. Microsoft will find it increasingly hard to have one company practice in Europe and one in the United States.

In addition, there is real hatred for the company and its products even by those who use them (as I do). I lament the passing of the company that made computer use easier in favor of one that seeks to control our use of this indispensible machine. Perhaps it will take more punishment of the company by existing laws to make Microsoft realize that the customer relations that created a great company have been discarded in favor of a rapacious monster that no one can abide.

Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.