Seoul fair trade finding against Microsoft
The Korean Fair Trade Commission (FTC) finds that:
Microsoft’s bundling practices limited fair market competition, with its monopolisation hurting the interest of consumers
I think it has been proven, and is more than clear right now after the case in Europe, that consumers are not the one being hurt. Afterall, consumers, having the choice right now to choose between a version of Windows XP with or without Media Player, seem to prefer the version WITH Media Player. So according to the Korean FTC, customers in Europe seem to enjoy hurting themselves. And they go on to say:
We hope Microsoft will be aware of its responsibility as the world’s largest software company and make efforts to ease the inconvenience and dissatisfaction of its clients
Inconvenience and dissatisfaction? Where do they get that information? I can’t imagine someone being dissatisfied and having an inconvenience because Windows Messenger and Media Player are installed on their system by default. I mean, if you don’t want to use it, just don’t. Use whatever you like. It’s like saying clients find it an inconvenience and are dissatisfied because Notepad got installed by default on their computer. Or MSPaint. Or Address Book. Or perhaps all of the command line tools in the Windows System directory.
Yes, it appears the Korean FTC can get away with such absurd claims. Never mind that nobody in their right state of mind in Europe is even considering to buy Windows XP Professional N (the version of windows without media player which Microsoft was forced to release in Europe). Oh no, the Korean FTC doesn’t really care about that. They’ll just make Microsoft release a N-edition of Windows XP for Korea as well and watch how everyone ignores it. Yes, just because they can. Or perhaps because they had to finish what they started way back when it was considered hip for governments to sue Microsoft.
Meanwhile most popular Linux distributions ship with almost every open source application ever developed, some installing more than one media player and instant messaging program at once, by default. But the Korean FTC doesn’t really care about that. Nope, Microsoft has a monopoly. It’s different. Right?
Wrong. I’d like to take this opportunity to invite the Korean FTC to go over here and read. Meanwhile I’ll go about my life in the hope that these people develop some common sense sometime in the near future.
The world is broken.
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