EU fines Microsoft over web browser

[Jack]

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Microsoft has been fined 561 million euros ($731m; £484m) for failing to promote a range of web browsers, rather than just Internet Explorer, to users in the European Union (EU).

It introduced a Browser Choice Screen pop-up in March 2010 as part of a settlement following an earlier EU competition investigation.

But the US company dropped the feature in a Windows 7 update in February 2011.

Microsoft said the omission had been the result of a "technical error".

But competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the action was unprecedented, adding he wanted to deter any company from the "temptation" of reneging on such a promise.

In theory the watchdog could have fined the firm 10% of its global annual revenue, which would have totalled $7.4bn based on its 2012 report.

"We take full responsibility for the technical error that caused this problem and have apologised for it," a spokesman for Microsoft said following the announcement.

"We provided the Commission with a complete and candid assessment of the situation, and we have taken steps to strengthen our software development and other processes to help avoid this mistake - or anything similar - in the future."

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21684329

 

[Gnosis]

The whole world is headed this way, I am afraid. It is called "zero accountability". The ones that succeed the most shall be punished, thus coerced into shelling out huge sums of cash for those that don't want to work as hard, or work at all, as to build quality products/services and sell them to the masses.
The One World Feudalist System is rearing its ugly head.

The ends of these oppressive means will bring us all mediocre quality and supply-side shortages, thus driving prices up, and quality and availability down-----JUST LIKE LENIN WANTED IT. This is what happens when you punish entrepreneurs and innovation for being offensive to the have-nots. You then have a reason for governments to continue to tax, fine and fee US ALL to oblivion, until even the governments must be destitute as well, less they choose to become good Imperialists and go to war to take what they cannot get from their job creators and labor forces after tapping them dry in the name of "utopian" fund raising.

 

[Gnosis]

Something like this is a little different in the U.S.A.
We have laws that are supposed to break monopolies up. But would still probably pick and choose which 1 percenters get fined and which ones that Obama and Congress decide to pay trillions to, which results in a form of quasi corporatism in the name of the sheeple saying: "Please, come rule over us, and punish those rich, evil innovators, and give us what they provide free of charge, and give us their market share, while punishing them with fines in the name of vassage and quasi corporatism, thus empowering yourselves to rule over us further. Tax us excessively too, so we can continue to contribute to your valiant cause."

B.O.R.G. vs. Sheeple

B.O.R.G. wins every time.

So, will Apple and Google, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, USPS, and AIG be punished too, or will they be the governments' pets?

In the end, who really benefits and how? Answer that question honestly, and you begin to realize the futility of it all. The end of the means is perdition, not UTOPIA.

Governments have proven time and time again that they cannot utilize funds responsibly, effectively, ethically and efficiently. They are like a person that has never worked a day in their life, nor worked enough to invest their EARNED money as to build their own business, yet they have 20 different credit cards maxed out, and three recreational drug habits.