A Stitch in Haste

…so says one of the most anti-law entities ever concocted: the European Commission –

Microsoft has been fined 280.5m euros ($357m; £194m) by the European Commission for failing to comply with an anti-competition ruling.
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The move follows a landmark EU ruling in 2004, which ordered Microsoft to provide rivals with information about its Windows operating system.
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The daily fines will come into force from 31 July if Microsoft fails to supply “complete and accurate” technical information to rival developers, the EU said.

Microsoft has insisted it is meeting the Commission’s demands, and says it expects to deliver the final bundle of information for use by rival software firms by 18 July.
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EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said she had “no alternative but to levy penalty payments” against Microsoft, adding that “no company is above the law”.

And precisely what law would that be? The law of property, whence most other laws derive? The one that says that the fruits of one’s private entrepreneurship and risk-taking should accrue to him unfettered by the petty jealousies of others? The one that says that private people should be able to buy and sell among themselves with no random or capricious interference from hack bureaucrats who produce nothing but economic friction? The one that says that lower prices are better than higher prices, that more efficiency is better than less efficiency, and that more comprehensive solutions are better than less comprehensive solutions?

Whatever law Microsoft broke, let’s hope it and other businesses find ever more ways to potentially break it.