I disagree with the European Union on this one..
The European Union wants Microsoft to have to remove WMP Windows Media Player from the OS because it (EU) finds the WMP as being too big and causing support for other "players" to drop off.
First off, no matter what you think of Microsoft this is bad policy on the part of the EU. No matter the number of users an OS has I believe the government should stay out of the business of what a manufacturer of an OS "bundles" with its OS.
It does not matter marketshare in my opinion. This is such bull on the part of the EU.
So just a what if...... If Apple one day had 80% of the marketshare of OS on the planet (yeah I know it will never happen) would you find it correct to make Apple remove features that are bundled within the OS. Such as iTunes? iChat? iMovie? Mail?
I believe this is wrong. No matter marketshare, no matter manufacturer.
What are your thoughts?
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Fellowship
First off, no matter what you think of Microsoft this is bad policy on the part of the EU. No matter the number of users an OS has I believe the government should stay out of the business of what a manufacturer of an OS "bundles" with its OS.
It does not matter marketshare in my opinion. This is such bull on the part of the EU.
So just a what if...... If Apple one day had 80% of the marketshare of OS on the planet (yeah I know it will never happen) would you find it correct to make Apple remove features that are bundled within the OS. Such as iTunes? iChat? iMovie? Mail?
I believe this is wrong. No matter marketshare, no matter manufacturer.
What are your thoughts?
Wired News Link
Fellowship
Comments
Therein lies the dilemma: as time progresses, it only makes sense that the operating system will pick up certain functions that have previously been relegated to stand alone or third party applications. This is a natural blurring of the lines between the various elements of a computing experience, and it's something that Microsoft's Windows does better than Apple's Mac OS. It benefits the user by applying common interfaces across all functions (because they're slowly becoming parts of the same program), but it also raises concerns over bundling and monopoly exploitation.
But would anyone want to use an operating system in 2003 that doesn't include a built-in Web browser or media player? And Windows Media is more than the player, it's the QuickTime equivalent for the Microsoft platform: it provides media functions as an OS-level object that can be embedded into disparate Microsoft and third-party applications.
Think how many things in Mac OS X would break if Apple were forced to rip out QuickTime.
But where do we draw the line? Could we let Microsoft one day build Word and Excel into Windows? I'm not certain.
If there were a way to keep the integrated media resource functionality while allowing other applications to plug into Windows Media as cleanly as the Player does, that would be the best solution. But to cripple Windows by ripping out its core multimedia engine? That's just a bad idea.
Governments should not get involved in business no matter what the economic cost to the country of illegal(!) exploitation of monopolies (and various other matters of fraud)
or
Removing built-in functionality would suck and the government should do nothing about the fact that MSFT can 'build-in' any technology it wants in order to create new monopolies with impunity.
or
Both.
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I think the EU can't do anything useful unless it goes on the all out attack, as it has left it too late (because it was waiting for the US to do something and it never did). As people have said making consumers download WMP would suck. So do something else. For example, fine MSFT many Billions of dollars and invest it in open-source solutions for governments and schools. Legislate that all government documents will be released in OpenOffice format within 3 years etc.
And yes, if Apple becomes a market dominating monopoly it would have to play by the rules layed down for monopolies and I would be very happy to see that happen.
I'd be very supportive of a resolution which allows Microsoft to continue to bundle developing technologies, like MSHTML/IE and WMV-WMA/WMP into Windows, but in a more modular fashion. Already you can run "third party" web browsers in Windows that utilize the OS's MSHTML engine for rendering but through a different user shell. This can be complicated, though. I'd like to see a requirement that makes it one-button simple.
Same for media programs: turn Windows Media Player into just one face for the universally-available Windows Media infrastructure, and allow any program to be one-click substituted -- without losing the ability to play media based on Microsoft's codecs.
I think a solution along those lines would allow for the user-benefit of the continued evolution of the operating environment, while still allowing third parties to offer competitive products.
It is these standards that are the equivalent of the infrastructure investment that make roads, railways, electricity and phone companies natural monopolies and therefore obvious targets for heavy government regulation and/or nationalisation.
In the UK for example the government through BT (previously British Telecom) invested Millions in laying fibre-optic cables etc. BT is now forced to sell capacity on this network to smaller operators at a fixed price.
Unfortunately I doubt this would work with MSFT as they have already proved adept at leveraging regulatory capture to their advantage.
Originally posted by stupider...likeafox
Can I just check what were saying here. Is it:
Governments should not get involved in business no matter what the economic cost to the country of illegal(!) exploitation of monopolies (and various other matters of fraud)
....
If the government not involved then it's not "illegal". There's only a handful of things I take to be "self evident" and monopolies being "illegal" is not one of them.
Say I would like QT to be the default media player, iTunes for Mp3's and Netscape 7 to be the default browser. OK, I install them, but after a few days, WMP and Exploder have somehow reset themselves to be default. NO, GO AWAY!!!
The OS level stuff I don't believe should be killed, but someone should take all the involved companies to task, about why their apps think that they have a right to change decisions that I have purposely made. This really P me off.
Originally posted by Argento
I was going to disagree with you because I hate Microsoft....then I realized that the same thing would then have to be true about knocking off Itunes and what not, and I for one can't live without Itunes.
It doesn't work like that though. The laws apply only to using monopoly power to exert control over other markets (at least in the US, I'm assuming it's the same in the EU). MS has a monopoly in the OS, and so they enter another market, media players, and leverage their monopoly OS control into media player control. Apple doesn't have an OS monopoly, so they aren't doing the same thing.
What this boils down to is whether you support competition or big business.
Originally posted by Scott
There's only a handful of things I take to be "self evident" and monopolies being "illegal" is not one of them.
The governments are already involved (since they decide what is legal and what is not) and they all decided a long time ago (and continue to support the notion when it suits them) that *abuse of* monopoly is illegal. (You can take this to mean "there is a law against it" or it is "a bad thing", both are true).
The reason, in case you forget, is because it is bad for the economy. Economists have shown that the massive amounts made by unregulated monopolies like MSFT are only a fraction of the total amount that has been removed from the economy as a whole by their actions.
Cross platform stuff like that should not be aloud to be in the hands of one big player like MS where that technology will only boost, or rather force, the sales of its main product, windows.
Originally posted by ac7860
It?s the French, it?s always the French, if it?s American they don?t like it.
That's right. It's the French.
The Brits, Germans, Spaniards, Scandinavians, Italians and everyone else in Europe just let the French get on with the legal stuff. We just keep out the way when it comes to European law.
Please think for yourself.