Story: EU court crushes Microsoft's antitrust appeal
Its about abusing a Monopoly position
Microsoft is not being asked to disclose anything other than interoperability protocols. This is about allowing other companies to compete in an area where a Monopolist currently actively prevents competition. If iTunes was the only player in the online music business then there would be similar problems with them. Apple don't force people to download from iTunes by not allowing other formats to play on their devices so this issue does not apply. The fact of the matter is that MS don't provide the access points into windows servers required by other companies to interact with their products. If other companies in a Monopoly position acted as Microsoft does they too would be treated similarly. Google and IBM use a lot of open standards as interfaces to their products and are very focussed on interoperability with third parties, its how they make most of their money. Microsoft's business model is about providing everything Microsoft and actively prevent other companies from interacting with their systems (vendor lock in). This is about interpreting competition law in abusing a Monopoly position not about singling out any specific company.
Full Talkback thread
