The seven-page paper, posted on Wednesday on Microsoft's Web site, is a cross between a treatise and a legal brief, citing both the potential damage of the ruling as well as alleged legal shortcomings of the decision.
"The Commission is seeking to make new law that will have an adverse impact on intellectual property rights and the ability of dominant firms to innovate," Microsoft said. "This adverse impact will not be confined to the software industry or to Europe."
The release of the paper comes just as the European Union is preparing to issue the full 300-page text of its ruling against Microsoft. The software maker has already seen the report, which is expected to be made public on Thursday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Microsoft told a US judge the company was willing to extend its existing program for licensing Windows communication protocols to rivals -- a move one observer said was aimed primarily at bolstering its case in Europe.
Last month, the European Union imposed a record $613m (£347m) fine and ordered Microsoft to share more of its technology with competitors and ship a version of its Windows operating system without a media player. The text of the ruling is expected to go into more detail on the mechanics of the ruling as well as how European regulators reached their decision.
In its detailed response to the EU action on Wednesday, Microsoft tried to cast the ruling as one that will stifle creativity at Microsoft and beyond.
"We live in a world in which most products result from combining a variety of individual components. Indeed, product innovation results in no small measure from such integration," Microsoft said. "The decision opens the door to intrusive regulation of product design -- not to mention a record fine -- based on a complaint by a single component supplier, even when this integration is the market norm and other suppliers continue to grow. Such a result, if allowed to stand, would almost certainly spell bad news for the European and global economies."
Talkback
Microsoft still does not get it. "New Law" is necessary because the monoplistic giant is trying to lock up access (now through a flurry of patents) where the indvidual consumer of PCs, who has lost most of his or her private property rights to the computer in their home, is hoping the some governmental organization will have the courage to dissassemble some of the chain mail linkage of the "Windows Illegally Integrated System." The only innovation that Microsoft is now good at is its ability to keep stealing the political leverage it takes to thwart most politicians. Congratulations EU and Munich for standing tough.
Why are Microsoft so afraid to do what all their competitors are forced to do, and provide Media Player as a downloadable add-on?
Imagine you're in a position where you don't want Media Player or Internet Explorer on your computer and would rather use RealPlayer and Mozilla. You've still got Microsoft's applications cluttering up your hard drive because they are now apparently unremovable, integral parts of Windows.
I place more value on the hard disk space they take up.
Please stop spreading this FUD. MS is not hiting back there are just worried about their monopoly and cash.
MS will die soon or later, why wait?
There is no " New Law", that is just "old" MS FUD, just like before.