It's actually already happening. It's just a slow process. The world doesn't change overnight when there is an already established system in place. But as MS's grasp on the OS world weakens so too will the reliance software makers have on them.

But that's really got little to do with their business practices, which indeed will not be changed by this matter.

If I remember correctly, the freeloader was an issue for Nintendo (in part) because it was an unlicenced software product that ran on unmodified Gamecubes. This meant that they had to make an example of them in order to protect their licencing agreements with all third parties. Simply imagine what would have happened if Nintendo let the Freeloader go unchallenged, it is likely that third parties of questionable quality would produce unlicenced Gamecube games; this would likely result in Nintendo having dozens of expensive lawsuits to protect their licencing terms.

Now, the reason why Microsoft and Sony typically get demonized from their 'evil' acts where other companies don't get the negative attention is because Sony and Microsoft have been involved in far more high profile 'evil' acts than everyone else ... This may not be entirely fair being that Sony and Microsoft has several divisions, and each division is as large as their competition in most sector.

 To be honest, I don't really see Microsofts grip on the OS market slipping. As this link 
( http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=2 ) shows Windows Vista market share is already greater than Mac OS and MacIntel combined.

This article ( http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34491 ) shows that market share has actually dipped for OSX (dated September 2006)

This article 
( http://www.theinquirer.netdefault.aspx?article=34491 )
shows that although the Mac marketshare is growing, it actually slipped again in March.

However, it is without doubt that the Windows market share is slowly slipping, but it's slipping incredibly slowly,
and even if you do factor in other OSs it's still above 90% and will remain to be for a very long time.

Maybe, in 2020 Microsoft might loose that number 1 position when I unleash my OS among the world... 

and this is what bill has to say to the microsoft employees:

As you’ve probably seen, the European Court of First
Instance has issued its ruling on the European
Commission’s 2004 decision against Microsoft. The
Court ruled in favor of the Commission on the two
major issues in the case:
1.      Integration – Was it acceptable under European law
for us to include media playback functionality in
Windows without also offering Windows without media
playback?  The Court upheld the Commission’s position
that we should have offered Windows with and without
media playback.
2.      Compulsory licensing – Were we obligated under
European law to license certain Windows protocols to
competitors for implementation in their competing
products? The Court upheld the Commission’s position
that Microsoft is required to license these protocols.

While this is a disappointing outcome, we have already
been living under the Commission’s decision for more
than three years, and we have taken steps to try to
fully comply. We created versions of Windows XP and
Windows Vista without media player capabilities, we
established a licensing program for our protocols, and
we paid the fine in 2004.  In addition, we’ve already
adopted voluntary standards for how we integrate new
features into our products in order to preserve
competitive opportunities, and we continue to actively
pursue interoperability because it’s what our
customers need.
There may be additional steps necessary to ensure that
we are in full compliance with European law. We are in
close contact with the European competition
authorities and we will be discussing this with them
in the days to come.
While we had hoped for a different outcome, it is
important to recognize that the Court’s judgment
should not adversely affect our customers in the
short-run. Today’s ruling was very clear that we can
still offer our full-featured products to our
customers.  While we do have concerns about how the
legal precedents in the Commission’s decision and
today’s ruling will affect innovation and intellectual
property, we can still provide our customers with the
same products, services and support that we were
providing prior to today’s decision.
I want to thank our legal team for its hard work, and
all of the developers, testers, technical
documentation specialists and other people throughout
the company who have done so much to support the legal
and communications efforts around this case.  I
especially want to thank all of Microsoft’s employees
in Europe for your understanding and support through
this lengthy case.
The bottom line is that we will continue to work to
resolve these issues. In the meantime, let’s go
forward and rededicate ourselves to our mission of
helping people and businesses realize their potential,
in Europe and around the world.
Bill

And Microsoft Windows isn't a Microsoft's product and you feel Nintendo has a right to decide how their product is handled but Microsoft doesn't?  You seriously don't see the double standard?

As for Freeloader allowing people to break the law, how so?  Doesn't it require another product with it in order to break the law?  Ever wonder why Nintendo didn't take them to court?  It's because in some countries Freeloader is legal (Australia for example) and in other countries the laws that protect region coding may go against international trade agreements and Nintendo likely doesn't want to take it to court in case Datel wins, especially in the European Union where there has already been an investigation into region coding of movies (now please tell me if the following doesn't sound like what Freeloader is trying to prevent):

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/01/275&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commissioner for Competition Policy

Content, Competition and Consumers: Innovation and Choice

...

"Whilst the prices of many products are higher in the EU than in the US, the major film production companies in agreement with the major equipment manufacturers have introduced a worldwide regional coding system for DVDs. Under this system, a DVD sold in one of the world's six regions cannot be played on a DVD player sold in another region. The thrust of the complaints that we have been receiving is that such a system allows the film production companies to charge higher DVD prices in the EU because EU consumers are artificially prevented from purchasing DVDs from overseas.

As a direct result of these complaints, we have initiated contacts with the major film production companies. We will examine closely what they have to say. Whilst I naturally recognise the legitimate protection which is conferred by intellectual property rights, it is important that, if the complaints are confirmed on the facts, we do not permit a system which provides greater protection than the intellectual property rights themselves, where such a system could be used as a smoke-screen to allow firms to maintain artificially high prices or to deny choice to consumers.

My services have had contacts on this issue with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which has also sought clarifications from the major film production companies. I have noted with great interest the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's conclusion that the regional coding system imposes a 'severe restriction of choice' on consumers. The Commission will need to determine whether there are similarly negative effects in the EU which could fall within the scope of the competition rules."

 I'm not so sure about that, MS has an enormous turnover, but their profits are very low for such a big company. Last year, they had a 1.09 billion $ profit I think, which is very scarce against all these expences this year!

No Microsoft makes much more than that they make quite an obscene amount really for the services they provide. On revenue of 51.12 billion dollars they managed to bring home 14.06 billion of it in pure money in your pocket profit for 2007. This is only possible because of their monopoly position they know it their stock holders know it. This is why I think they won't care because if Microsoft played fair in the market they all know they would be making far less money than they do now fines and all. Now if this trend continues maybe but forgive me if I'm a bit pessimistic especially after the case around Internet Explorer ended in a wrist slap of telling them to document their APIs which they don't do in a significant manner by the way so essentially that lawsuit which convicted them of being an abusive monopoly ended in exactly 0 consequences. Hopefully the EU keeps at it though last I heard they were also pushing to force MS to finally document their APIs properly but if its anything like the US case they'll settle with Microsoft and the net result will be nothing at all.

Microsoft made US$14.06 billion in profit last year...  They would have made over US$15 billion in profit if not for the money they put aside to cover the 3 year Xbox 360 warranty.

Also the 690 million they just lost on this case. Almost 2 billion gone, and it wasn't even actually spent on anything. Just problem fixing. AVOIDABLE problem fixing.

The money is split over 2 years... Xbox 360's 3 year warranty cost is covered in FY2007 this judgment will be paid in FY2008 (if they don't appeal it, they have 2 months to decide what to do).