FSFE to challenge Microsoft in its appeal against European Commission
The European Commission sought to help the IT market grow in the best possible way for consumers and citizens of the European Union with its antitrust ruling against Microsoft.
EU Commissioner Mario Monti imposed a penalty of nearly 500 millions Euro and additional conditions. One of these is the publication of the software interfaces. These informations are important for example to the Free Software project SAMBA. SAMBA connects the UNIX and GNU/Linux World with Microsofts operating systems. Via this gateway SAMBA reduces customers addiction of the monoculture which is fostered by the Redmond based software giant. Without the informations on the interfaces SAMBA cannot work best.
Although it seems questionable whether that ruling would truly stop the monopoly, Microsoft seems to be worried and has entered appeal against it in front of the European Court.
After having participated as third party in the antitrust case before, the Free Software Foundation Europe has participated to the preliminary hearing on Tuesday 27th of July 2004 to enter court in order to defend the decision of the European Commission and the freedom to use Free Software SAMBA.
Among general interests of Free Software, the FSFE will specifically be representing the interests of the SAMBA team, a Free Software cooperation developing the only remaining competing implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocols that permit interoperability between various operating systems and the MS Windows family.
The Italian lawyer Carlo Piana, of the milanese firm Tamos Piana & Partners, will represent the interests of FSF Europe and of SAMBA team, the developers of the remaining competing implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocols that permits interoperability between various operating systems and the MS Windows family. He commented: "FSFE simply could not remain outside this litigation. The decision of the Commission represents an important precedent which is of utmost importance in the sofware market and for the whole society. Freedom, not just money, is at stake. I am therefore very proud of this appointment".
"This case is about preserving the last remaining obstacle to total Microsoft dominance of the Microsoft-compatible server market. It is not only about defending freedom for users, but mainly freedom of businesses." says Georg Greve, president of the FSFE, adding "We call on all businesses to support us in this struggle. Those who ignore that call today have to expect to have only one choice to buy storage and directory services from tomorrow.
Information about the FSFE fundraising campaign can be found at
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2004/news-20040701.en.html http://fsfeurope.org/help/donate.en.html
More background information on the Microsoft investigation is available on http://fsfeurope.org/projects/ms-vs-eu/ms-vs-eu.html
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition- allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the United States.
Contacts:
Georg C. F. Greve <greve at fsfeurope.org> Tel: +49-40-23809080 Fax: +49-40-23809081
Stefano Maffulli <maffulli at fsfeurope.org> Tel: +39 02 34 537 127 Fax: +30 02 34 531 282 Cel: +39 347 14 93 733
More information for the press available at http://fsfeurope.org/press/