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"A month after a court decision by the European Commission upheld  the initial court ruling against Microsoft  for what had been determined as an overwhelming market dominance, Microsoft has decided not to appeal.  After four years of court battle in Europe, Microsoft is essentially bowing down, determining to cooperate with European authorities and work according to the local laws in regards to the regulation of monopolies.  \nThis changes how Microsoft can bundle software packages as well as how it must respond to third-parties (often competitors) looking for compatibility with Microsoft products.  The agreement entails that Microsoft will license all of its intellectual property, except patent, that are necessary for competitors to work with a version of Windows used on business servers.  Any competitors that would like to use the license options will pay a one-time fee of 10,000, as opposed to ongoing royalties.  If a license for a patent is necessary, Microsoft will have to give a license at the rate of 0.4% of the competitors' revenue from the product, which  is below the 5.95% rate that Microsoft initially put forth.  \nNow that an agreement between Microsoft and the European Commission has been met, the clock has been stopped on daily fines for Microsoft, which were adding up to \u20AC3 million every day. However, the EU has yet to determine how much of the daily fines will actually be required of Microsoft to pay. An appeal on one of Microsoft's fines amounting to \u20AC281 million has not yet been withdrawn, and no word has been given on whether or not Microsoft will withdraw the appeal at all.  \nAttitudes towards Microsoft-like software bundles have changed since 2004, for the world as well as Microsoft.  The decision to accept the upholding of the initial court ruling, however, could send a message to not only the global community, but to other big companies currently facing the European Commission.  Both Intel, which has been accused of selling microprocessors below costs while using rebates to encourage customers to overlook rivals, and Google, which is in the process of acquiring ad network DoubleClick, are in serious talks with the European Commission regarding monopolistic business practices. \n[via  wsj]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/10/22/microsoft-european-commission/>