MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-03-06 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Microsoft Anti-competitive Practices: Egov-OS
|
Why PErens needs to stop Promoting MS in Government
Ruben
NYLXS/NY Fair Use
nylxs.com fairuse.nylxs.com
Xbox Linux Project complains to EU about Microsoft dumping
Antitrust plea
By Mike Magee: Wednesday 05 March 2003, 09:16
Xbox Linux Project REPRESENTATIVES OF the Xbox Linux Project have asked
the European Union to widen its investigation of alleged anticompetitive
behaviour in the community to include Microsoft's Xbox.
In a letter to the commissioners written yesterday, the project asks
them to widen the scope of their enquiries to include the Xbox.
The games console, the project claims, is made and sold at a loss,
cross-subsidised from the money made from the monopoly Microsoft is
alleged to have in the operating systems realm.
Further, claims the project, the Xbox is a standard PC, but Microsoft
has added mechanisms so that only software approved by it can run on
the machine.
This, claims the project, constitutes a "protected market" for for
Microsoft only ? the 100,000 members of the project can only make other
software work by adding extra circuitry, that is to say "modchips",
to allow the code to be executed.
The group further says it has written to Microsoft three times asking
for its cooperation to allow Xbox Linux to run on unmodified consoles,
but has received no replies whatever.
The group claims that Microsoft is using the DMCA in the United States
against people who supply Xbox modchips. meaning end users won't be able
to fit modchips, despite the fact that Xbox Linux is GPLd.
The group says that when the EUCD (European Union Copyright Directive)
is ratified in Germany and the UK, Microsoft may use similar techniques
to prevent the use of the Xbox for similar purposes.
The letter adds that the commissioners examine the "Microsoft only" Xbox
to "ensure that there can be no independent competition in Operating
Systems or Application programs on this PC platform". ยต
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