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Thursday, November 24, 2005

Microsoft rivals seek to join EU antitrust action
Appeal of media player ruling

By MATTHEW NEWMAN
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Microsoft Corp.'s free-software competitors have asked a European Union court for permission to join EU regulators in an antitrust dispute with the company.

The Free Software Foundation Europe, which represents developers of programs such as Linux and Samba, an open-source replacement for Microsoft Windows' networking features, asked to be interveners in an appeal at the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.

"We want to make sure that Microsoft is forced to publish the communication specifications, and in a way that competition is possible, including for free software venders," Georg Greve, president of Hamburg, Germany-based Free Software Foundation Europe, said Wednesday.

Advocates of open-source programs remain the EU's main supporter in the case against Microsoft as businesses reach settlements with the company.

RealNetworks Inc. withdrew from the EU case last month in a $761 million agreement. Novell Inc. and the Computer & Communications Industry Association settled last year.

Microsoft is appealing a decision by the European Commission, the EU's antitrust regulator, ordering it in March 2004 to offer a version of Windows without a video and music player and to disclose secrets about its operating system software. Regulators also fined Microsoft a record $585 million for abusing its market strength.

Microsoft then filed a separate suit Aug. 10 in the European court, saying that the European regulator's order that it license information to developers of open-source products violates its intellectual-property rights.

The Free Software Foundation Europe, the sister organization of the Boston-based Free Software Foundation, has already received court approval to intervene in Microsoft's main appeal.

A hearing in that case is expected before April, Bo Vesterdorf, the court's president, said Nov. 4.

In Microsoft's licensing appeal, the Free Software Foundation Europe said the company's argument that the commission's decision will lead to a loss of its intellectual-property rights is "broad, generic and grossly unfounded."

Tom Brookes, a spokesman for Microsoft, and commission spokesman Jonathan Todd declined to comment.

Linux threatens Microsoft's sales of Windows-based server software.

Linux, with backing from companies including IBM Corp., Novell and Red Hat Inc., had second-quarter sales of $1.4 billion, according to industry research firm IDC.

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