EU threatens Microsoft with heavy fines over antitrust non-compliance News
EU threatens Microsoft with heavy fines over antitrust non-compliance

[JURIST] The European Commission [official website] announced Friday that Microsoft [corporate website] may be fined up to five percent of its daily turnover, nearly $5 million per day, unless it complies with last year's antitrust decisions [JURIST Hot Topic archive] against the software giant. Last month, Microsoft was denied a court action to suspend the EU sanctions [EU press release]. At that hearing, Microsoft agreed to offer a new, rival-software friendly version of the Windows operating system. It also agreed to share printer and server protocols with other hardware manufacturers. It his statement, EU spokesman Jonathan Todd noted, "We obviously expect the remedies to be complied with within a matter of weeks–measured from last December–rather than months." Microsoft is currently appealing the Commission's ruling against it to the EU's Court of First Instance [official website in English]. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Montgomery started racially-integrated bus service after boycott

On December 21, 1956, buses in Montgomery, Alabama, started racially integrated service following federal court rulings ending on-board segregation. Bus boycott leaders Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy were among the first riders under the new scheme. Learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Stalin born

On December 21, 1879, Joseph Stalin was born in Gori, Georgia. In 1922, he became leader of the USSR until his death in 1953. During his time as Soviet dictator, Stalin industrialized his country, which he then led to become one of the world's two superpowers after WWII. Through his infamous purges, show trials and nationwide famines, Stalin also became responsible for millions of deaths.