September 08, 2006
The EU finally gets the message
The message is that if you create a regulatory environment that is sufficiently hostile, companies will not want to do business with you. Microsoft is warning that the currently regulatory situation, for which they've been fined in excess of half a billion dollars, is likely to delay the introduction of Vista in Europe.
Microsoft says that unclear guidance from the EU on what kind of things they want are making it difficult to release a product. The EU, in one of the most ass-backwards pronouncements they've come to yet, says it isn't their responsibility to tell Microsoft how to be compliant, it's Microsoft's responsibility to be compliant.
Say what?
Apparently you're just supposed to kind of guess, and trust that the EU will tell you when you step out of line.
This does not sound like the kind of environment that I want to do business in, and apparently Microsoft is coming to the same conclusion.
Microsoft asserts, more or less accurately depending on just how excited the rest of the world is about Vista, that a delay or absence of Vista in Europe would put European companies at a global competative disadvantage. "This effectively means that the commission’s actions are endangering the ability of European business to compete globally," said Microsoft in their statement.
Maybe now the Eurocrats will finally understand that while you can't create business with regulations, you can almost certainly end it.
