twesterm said:
Reasonable said:
twesterm said:
And just to reiterate-- as much as some people may wish it, the people at MS are not morons.
Just like I'm sure MS had their lawyers making sure what they did was legal in America, I'm sure they looked into international law too. Norweighen law may be a mystery to me, but probably not so much Microsoft.
|
You're right, and also wrong - in as much as plenty of large US centric corporations like MS (and I work for one myself) regularly fall foul of European laws whether for employment, trading infringements or whatever.
The issue always seems to be the lawyers, etc. are in place but corporate decisions are often made US centric or before checking with every single local law team, with the result that they can get caught short - as MS itself knows with its years of hefty fines in Europe.
In the end the fact is that there is no guarantee how different regions might decide. In US a court might find for MS, while in Europe the opposite could happen.
I do know, at least so far as my company is concerned, they hate European laws and even with billions and billions of dollars of revenue and lots of lawyers, etc. they still get caught by local legal decisions.
|
I don't know who you work for so I can't make assumptions about your company, but I know people that work for Microsoft and people that work for Microsoft Games-- both entities cross their t's and dot their i's.
|
I've worked for IBM and Microsoft in Europe and currently work for Oracle. They all cross their 't's and dot their 'i's and each one of them in my experience has been tripped up here and there in Europe by local laws, etc. It's mainly on smaller stuff, but sometimes it's on bigger stuff. The main issue (as proven in MS's with the whole Windows/Explorer fiasco in Eruope) is that basic strategies these companies wish to employ (and which are fine in US) can and do get a different response in Europe.
I'm not saying MS will fall foul of anything, nor that they don't know what they're doing - they do and they can afford to hire the very best staff (yes I count myself in that!) - but on occasion issues do occur simply beacuse of differening laws.
