In an article
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&ncid=528&e=7&u=/ap/20050321/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_microsoft
"BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union (news - web sites) threatened Microsoft Corp. on Friday with new fines if the software company doesn't make it easier and cheaper for competitors to see the blueprints of its server software."
The implied point is that the EU wants Microsoft to compete with so-called Open Source software. The EU proponents seem to be unconcerned that there is a substantial cost in developing, supporting and improving software.
If anyone has ever tried to find a support source for Linux, Unix or any of the many flavors of Open Source software, they know it is well nigh impossible to solve some anomalies without extensive programming skills. In the same way, if Windows were to be obligated to become Open Source, the software would quickly become unsupportable.
I have to wonder if this is a case of attempted socialization of software but hidden as an encouraging competitive business practice? Note that the EU has already fined Microsoft $665 million dollars due to alleged anti-trust violations, and they maintain an option of fining up to 5% of Microsoft’s global sales.
Lets see, they want to profiteer from Microsoft, well beyond it’s sales in Europe, but at the same time, demand that Microsoft can’t profit from it’s own work.
Unbelievable.