Microsoft treated mega-hard

European prosecutors don't appear ready to relent in their crusade against Microsoft's profits, reports the International Herald Tribune.

IBM, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and others have been kind enough to "bring to the European Commission's attention" the fact that they deem Microsoft in continuing violaiton of EU antitrust laws. And the Commission appears to be considering taking the case.

Which isn't surprising. If my antitrust course taught me anything, it's that such laws are drafted so broadly that this blog is technically in continuing violation of them (for having a veritable monopoly on Kisbács-related news and events and exploiting that monopoly without relent).

But this news comes at a pivotal time for me. The antitrust case against Microsoft, which the company recently settled in Europe to the tune of hundreds of millions, never made it to a jury in the United States. Antitrust laws are of necessity so vaguely drafted that remarkably similar standards can be interpreted by more free-market U.S. judges not to apply to the exact same practices that socially minded European judges find them to apply to.

I'm Officially Out of the Euro-skeptic Closet

And another thing about this news: it has given me still more cause for thought about the EU as a whole. I've been debating of late whether to turn from a mere Euro-agnostic to a full Euro-skeptic. This is an especially poignant question for me, given that it's hard to argue that ascension into the EU wouldn't bring huge economic windfalls to Romania (a country to which, if you haven't guessed it yet, I am partial).

But I'm going to take this opportunity to "out" myself as Euroskeptical. Regardless of the benefits of a 400-million person common market, I see the EU as well on track to ensnare all of its member states in a (if you'll pardon the metaphor) socialist web that no amount of free trade will make less sticky. Maybe not anytime this decade, mind you, but in our lifetimes if things don't change dramatically.

If it ever gets a web site, I will be very interested in looking into the Alliance for an Open Europe, a group that purports to want all of the free trade and openness with none of the heavy-handedness of the EU.



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