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European Commission weighs iPod Levies
Should taxes introduced on analog cassette tapes in the 1960's affect digital media players in the 2000's? That's the question before the European Commission, which is due to decide whether iPods should carry a copyright tax. A Dutch industry group postponed imposing the tax, waiting for the commission results. While electronics manufacturers oppose the measure, European artists feel otherwise. Prominent film directors Pedro Almodovar and Bertrand Tavernier support the levy, saying it helps fund their work.
Microsoft warns Europe of possible Vista delays
First the PS3, now this. Microsoft is warning that their oft delayed, Windows Vista operating system might be delayed even further in Europe due to "unclear antitrust guidance" from the European Commission. Apparently this all began in a letter from the commission to Steve Ballmer in March with concerns that some of the features in Vista would breach the same laws XP violated a few years back. According to Microsoft, they proposed some changes but never heard back, saying "Once we receive the commission's response, we will know whether the commission is seeking additional product design changes that would result in delay in Europe." Tit for tat, a spokesman for the commission's antitrust division said Microsoft's statement was "misleading to imply that the commission could be the cause of delays. It is not up to us to tell Microsoft what it has to do to Vista, the onus is on Microsoft to design its product in conformity with European competition laws, which it is well aware of." Meow! So is this just legal posturing by Microsoft in their never-ending European antirust battle or a bit of preemptive blame-shifting in case of further delay? We don't know. But hey, Europe, consider yourselves warned.
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD under investigation by sleuths
The European Commission has recently initiated an investigation into the two new formats of media being released, namely, our lovely Blu-Ray and the less-lovely-but-still-worth-a-look HD-DVD. No, Sherlock Holmes was not called in on this detective's dream, but an unofficial probe was. "Under what charges?!" demands Sony and Toshiba, spear-headers of the two formats. The EUC responds: "The Commission suspects that the licensing terms the companies are applying breach European competition rules." Egads!An unnamed spokesman for the EUC told reporters that they had sent letters to the "makers" of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD to request licensing info, but refused to name names. Sony did that for them, eagerly telling the world they received one of the letters and have agreed to cooperate openly. Good move, since Toshiba and other HD-DVD makers have refused to comment or go public about the claims. Well, however the initial investigation goes, the EUC will either drop the whole thing or create a large anti-trust probe investigation. Let's hope it's the former so we can get our PS3's in a few months. Please!
EU investigating HD DVD, Blu-ray licensing terms
Both high definition optical disc formats have already seen their share of setbacks in the form of delays and hardware problems, and now they may be facing some nasty anti-trust allegations pending the results of a recently-launched EU probe. Having already flexed its authoritative muscle against Microsoft, the European Commission has now moved on to investigating the terms that the major backers of Blu-ray and HD DVD are exerting upon their respective licensees. Since the investigation is still "unofficial" at this point, the Commission refused to specify the particular companies being probed, although Sony publicly confirmed that it has received one of the letters in question and that it's cooperating with regulators. If these same regulators decide that nothing fishy is going on, then the matter will be dropped; but if they're displeased with the responses they get, a full anti-trust probe is likely. Best case scenario: only one of the camps ends up being subjected to further scrutiny, leaving the other as clear-cut victor in the format war and saving us all the hassle of choosing sides.
