Microsoft's monopoly position would quickly be corrected in a free market.

Good point. However, rooting out corruption, dishonesty and unfair practices in the marketplace would probably require humanity to evolve significantly beyond what we are today. In a set of rules as complex as modern law, there will always be loopholes and ways to gain unfair advantages, and those loopholes will be exploited. Bad people and bad behavior are not anomalies, they are always part of the equation when humans are involved. We need to oppose abusive behavior where we see it, and we need to keep fighting. A free market is like democracy, it needs to be defended and have its flaws fixed. Like democracy, a free market is also a process, not a steady state. What is required right now is an honest attempt to set things right, but it will be just another step along the way. We will find more bugs in the system down the road.

(Soapbox mode off)

may be they can ask some people at the ISO National Bodies of Cyprus island, Jamaica island, Malta island, Cote d Ivoire and Lebanon, what caused their "sudden" motivation to ask (and get) ISO JTC1 P-member status a few days previous to DIS 29500 september/2007 ballot closing…

I think the European Commission can easily trigger the committee members in Cyprus and Malta. On the phone it is better to make social engineering.

Especially in countries like United States, Sweden, or Italy.

An email is cheap, and everything you do can only be positive.

But it will probably take 10 years before you get something out of it.

Anonymous comment

The EU is NOT punishing microsoft, it's putting on a show to keep the geeks quiet. There would be a simple way to break microsoft's monopoly: stop granting them (and everybody else) free-market-destroying patent and copyright monopolies. Microsoft's monopoly position would quickly be corrected in a free market.

Mr. Cecilio Madero Villarejo
Director of Unit C
European Commission
Directorate-General For Competition
1049 Brussels
Tel: (32-2) 29-60949, 53966
Email: ue.aporue.ce|oilicec.oredam#ue.aporue.ce|oilicec.oredam

In the months and weeks leading up to the vote, Microsoft resellers and other allies joined standards bodies en masse — helping swell the Italian group, for instance, from a half-dozen members to 85. Opponents said Microsoft stacked committees. People familiar with the matter say EU regulators are now questioning whether Microsoft's actions were illegal. Microsoft said at the time that any committee expansion had the effect of making more voices heard; it also said rival International Business Machines Corp. mobilized on the other side of the vote.

If you are interested in transparency of the ISO process, the Commission can have a look at the voting record in Italy. Maybe black magic made those Microsoft business partners appearing in the italian standard committee, or maybe Microsoft promised them "market incentives", as they did in Sweden.

And when Microsoft is interviewed in ZDNet about the committee stuffing practice, they of course minimise the incident, by naming it an "unfortunate accident":

When asked about an alleged vote-rigging incident that occurred in relation to the upcoming International Organization for Standardization (ISO) decision last year, Microsoft's Thomas described it as "an unfortunate accident".

"It was a misunderstanding on behalf of an employee in one of our Swedish subsidiaries," he said. "It's been remedied and we've now reinforced with our people what's expected of them."

Let's hope for competitors and consumers that DIS29500 will have an unfortunate technical accident in Geneva.