Alex's Kwiki

This month, FSF Europe has been fighting Microsoft in the European Court. Acting for FSFE, noted Italian anti-trust and IT lawyer Carlo Piana, and SAMBA Team member Jeremy Allison have delivered FSFE's first statement this month, explaining why Microsoft should be forced to disclose the specifications of its Windows network protocols to enable competition.

This legal action is part of the evidence against Microsoft's attempts to escape by appealing the EU's decision earlier this year to impose its largest-ever fine (497 million euros) on Microsoft for its anti-competitive practices. The ruling also required Microsoft to provide information on its proprietary protocols to competitors.

The final decision on the hearing should be made public around the end of October 2004. It will be a landmark decision for Europe, setting the EU on the path of open-standards and free competition, or monopoly in the field of computing.

FSF is incurring heavy costs and needs more funds to carry out its work at the Europe level---all contributions are appreciated and support free software in a very effective way. You can now donate to FSFE online with a UK debit/credit card at the AFFS website at http://www.affs.org.uk/support.

-- Brian J Gough, 19/10/2023