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To: Terpfen

No. The lawsuit was by the EU, not Opera. The anti-trust complaint that initiated the lawsuit was initially filed by Opera but others signed on to the complaint. Filing an antitrust complaint is roughly the equivalent of reporting a crime. Opera reported what it perceived to be illegal activity to the EU - the EU has agreed. The motives of Opera are irrelevant in this situation - illegal is illegal. The same thing was done with Media Player in 2004.

Granted, some would consider this a distinction without a difference, but from a legal perspective it is what it is.

Opera is a leader in the mobile browser market and one of their assertions was that if they had been allowed to compete fairly they would have been in the PC browser market as well - and the EU agrees.

As to how they feel concerning market share and Safari, I have yet to hear. But since they are a EU country, and the law consistently agrees with them, we may soon see.


50 posted on 07/29/2009 1:41:55 PM PDT by asformeandformyhouse (I've been listening to a lot of rap music lately. Mostly at red lights and stop signs.)
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To: asformeandformyhouse
The lawsuit was by the EU, not Opera.

False. Opera filed the initial complaint with the EU Commission. You can believe me or you can believe their own press release on the matter. The EU Commission investigated Opera's claim and began legal proceedings against Microsoft.

The motives of Opera are irrelevant in this situation - illegal is illegal.

The notion that Microsoft violated any reasonable law simply by including a web browser with their operating system is absurd.

Opera is a leader in the mobile browser market and one of their assertions was that if they had been allowed to compete fairly they would have been in the PC browser market as well - and the EU agrees.

Opera has been around for over a decade, a longer period of time than Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, the reincarnation of Netscape, K-Meleon, the Webkit project, and numerous other browsers. The idea that the only thing holding Opera back from greater market share was Microsoft flies in the face of reality: Firefox, despite being many years younger than Opera, has nearly a 20% market share in Europe alone. Chrome has a greater market share. Safari has a greater market share. Opera is not the victim of anticompetitive behavior on the part of Microsoft: Opera is the victim of its own incompetence.

It is very telling that Opera had been around for years prior to the release of Firefox, yet Firefox is credited with re-igniting the browser wars. It is also very telling that Opera is attempting to litigate its way into market share, rather than competing its way into market share. I suppose it's fitting, since they've already failed in the open market, that they pull an Al Gore and attempt to litigate a desired result.
51 posted on 07/29/2009 1:52:32 PM PDT by Terpfen (FR is being Alinskied. Remember, you only take flak when you're over the target.)
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