Re:Microsoft files monopoly complaint against Google
by haberman on Thursday March 31, 2011 @02:09PM
(#2392831)
Just some historical context for the anti-competitive behaviors that Microsoft refined and perfected into an art:
Obfuscated code to prevent Windows 3.1 from running on competing MS-DOS systems like DR-DOS. Microsoft VP internal memo:
> What the [user] is supposed to do is feel uncomfortable,
> and when he has bugs, suspect that the problem is DR-DOS
> and then go out to buy MS-DOS."
Licenses and threats that prevented Hitachi from pre-installing BeOS on in a dual boot configuration with MS-Windows. From the Be complaint:
> Hitachi eventually explained that the terms of its license
> with Microsoft prohibited preinstallation of another operating
> system in a dual-boot configuration. Hitachi also
> revealed that after it notified Microsoft of its intention to
> preinstall BeOS, Microsoft sent two U.S. managers to Japan who
> expressed their “anger” with Hitachi over its arrangement with
> Be, and “reminded” Hitachi of the terms of its Windows
> license."
An explicit strategy of "embrace, extend, extinguish":
> [Former Intel exec Peter] McGeady also testified to MS's
> professed strategy of "embrace, extend, extinguish." MS
> planned to "extend" the HTML standard to the point where it
> would be incompatible with the Netscape browser and then to
> encourage developers to use the MS HTML such that web pages
> couldn't be read with Netscape's browser.
I could go on, but you get the idea. Compared to these, "Google makes it too hard for us to index YouTube" sounds pretty tame in comparison.
"There of course will be some who will point out the irony in today’s filing. Having spent more than a decade wearing the shoe on the other foot with the European Commission, the filing of a formal antitrust complaint is not something we take lightly. This is the first time Microsoft Corporation has ever taken this step. More so than most, we recognize the importance of ensuring that competition laws remain balanced and that technology innovation moves forward."