One of my greatest fears for the United States economy is the spectre of an outside agency, under the control of  the globally-corrupt United Nations or the globally-inept European Union, imposing rules and regulations on American businesses, enforced in foreign courts and resulting in large paydays to what can be charitably described as a bunch of socialistic collectivists.

Microsoft found out the hard way...

It matters little if you think that Microsoft is the enemy and the Bill Gates is the devil. Without Gates, Allen, Ballmer and company, progress in placing computers on every desktop and every home would have been almost non-existent in a world where mini-computers and mainframes ruled supreme in business and that micro-computers like those sold by Apple may have remained unconnected toys.

The various Windows operating systems have their problems, and I personally hate Windows/Vista, but why should the Europeans, or anyone for that matter, be able to compel a company to reveal their internal secrets to nullify their competitive edge for the benefit of non-affiliated interlopers.

According to the Associated Press...

Record EU Fine for Microsoft

"The European Union's longest-running fight with Microsoft Corp. neared an end Wednesday as regulators imposed a record $1.3 billion fine on the world's largest software company for failing to fully comply with a 2004 antitrust order."

"Microsoft has not decided whether to appeal the penalty, which amounts to a fraction of the $14.07 billion it earned in fiscal 2007. In all, the company has been fined just under $2.4 billion by European antitrust regulators over the years."

"Barring an appeal, the fine shuts the door on an investigation into Microsoft's behavior that was triggered by a 1998 complaint by Sun Microsystems Inc. It alleged Microsoft was refusing to supply information that servers need to work with its market-dominating Windows operating system."

"Microsoft eventually made the information available to rivals, but the EU said it charged 'unreasonable prices' until last October."

"[EU Competition Commissioner Neelie] Kroes roes also was skeptical over Microsoft's announcement last week that it was further expanding its efforts to make its software work better with rival technologies. A news release, she said, 'does not necessarily equal a change in business practice.'"

It depends on whose rules you are flouting...

"'Talk is cheap. Flouting the rules is expensive,' she said."

"Fines—which can hit as much as 10 percent of company's global yearly revenue—are paid into the EU budget which pays out farm subsidies and research grants. The European Commission claims antitrust fines ultimately help reduce the financial burden on European taxpayers."

Screw European taxpayers! I am not a proponent of wealth re-distribution from hard-working innovative risk-takers to people who legislate 6-8 weeks of vacation.

"'We could have gone as high as 1.5 billion euros,' Kroes said, referring to an amount equal to about $2.2 billion. 'The maximum amount is higher than what we did at the end of the day.'"

Where is it written?

While it is nice to seamlessly integrate with the largest group of desktop computers and business servers, I do not recall this as being a constitutional right. If you want to compete -- build your own better mousetrap! If enough people were truly dissatisfied with Microsoft, they would purchase their systems elsewhere.

Where would you be without Microsoft?

"Microsoft's actions stifled innovation, hurting millions of people who use computers in offices around the world, she said, calling the fine 'a reasonable response to a series of quite unreasonable actions.'"

"The software titan fought hard against the EU's 2004 decision that ordered it to share interoperability information with rivals and sell a version of Windows without media software, taking an appeal to an EU court that it lost last September."

"It was fined again in July 2006—$357 million—for failing to obey that order."

"The EU alleged that Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability information to squeeze into a new market and damage rivals that make programs for workgroup servers that help office computers connect to each other and to printers and faxes."

Now imagine what will happen if the United States ignores its sovereignty and cedes power to a foreign entity charged with setting and enforcing carbon caps and controlling the creation, use and sale of trading emissions credits?

The spectre I fear:  foreign inspectors roaming the industries which comprise the strength of America, ostensibly measuring pollutants while collecting competitive intelligence that borders on state-sanctioned industrial espionage and spying on our military assets.

Or even worse, forcing Americans to report on other Americans to a foreign entity.

Plus being able to force American Courts to assess and collect fines which are remitted to a socialist entity such as the anti-American European Union or even worse, the corrupt anti-American interests at the United Nations.

What can YOU do?

Protect American intellectual property from foreign interlopers who want to invent workarounds and work-alikes and then sell them into the American market -- to the detriment of the true innovator. A classic maneuver which can be compared to Asian interests stealing American movies and songs -- reproducing them with impunity in Asia and then selling the purloined copies abroad as well as at domestic swap meets.

Do not cede any portion of American sovereignty to any foreign entity, including the United Nations. For those who are monitoring the current situation, this is primarily why the United States refuses to sign the Kyoto protocols which are being pushed by the far-left liberals, socialists, communists and anarchists.

Do not vote for any candidate or current politician who is willing to subvert the safety, security, sovereignty and economic strength of the United States or limit an individual's right of self-defense for their personal philosophy, power, prestige or profits.

-- steve

A reminder from OneCitizenSpeaking.com: a large improvement can result from a small change…

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius

Reference Links:

Record EU Fine for Microsoft