Microsoft's ISO win may worsen antitrust woes

<Quote>
....claims of foul play in the voting process may come back to haunt
the software giant when the European Commission concludes its latest
antitrust investigation of Microsoft's business practices.

[The EC sent a letter to all the national ISO bodies...]

"In your opinion, have there been any irregularities or attempts to
influence the debate or vote on the ECMA 376 proposal as regards your
organisation?

[This type of letter used to gather info in antitrust cases, used
previously in Microsoft antitrust case...]

One ISO official from Norway has already spoken of "serious
irregularities" in the voting process.

[Norway changed its vote, No->Yes...official says 80% of Norwegian
committee opposed to OOXML]

"Even if the votes were legitimately won - which I doubt - OOXML is
not an open standard because it isn't fully implemented on competing
platforms, and its future shape is subject purely to Microsoft's
control," according to Vinje [legal counsel in previous Microsoft
antitrust case]....

Confusingly, the Office Open XML format being assessed by the ISO "is
not what Microsoft implements in the Office suite," Vinje said, adding
that "If you implement OOXML, you don't get interoperability with
Office."

"ISO status for OOXML is certainly not the end of the story for the
Commission's antitrust case," he said.
</Quote>

[url]http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/DFE3C11047741AFACC25741F003379BD[/url]