BUSINESS BRIEFS
EU court upholds $613M penalty against Microsoft
Advertiser Staff and News Services
LUXEMBOURG — A European Union court today dismissed Microsoft Corp.'s appeal against an EU antitrust order that ordered it to share communications code with rivals and sell a copy of Windows without Media Player.
It also upheld a $613 million fine — the largest ever levied by EU regulators.
The EU Court of First Instance ruled the European Commission was correct in concluding that Microsoft was guilty of monopoly abuse in trying to use its power over desktop computers to muscle into server software. It also said regulators had clearly demonstrated that including media player software with Windows had damaged rivals.
Microsoft can appeal the decision to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice.
OPTIMISM NOTED AT GM-UAW TALKS
DETROIT — Bargainers for General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers took a break early today amid optimism that they are getting closer to reaching a critical contract agreement. The union told its members to report for work today.
GM has about 73,000 UAW-represented hourly workers at its U.S. factories.
One of the local union officials, who asked not to be identified, said the main outstanding issues were retiree healthcare expenses and promises from the company that it will build new vehicles at UAW-represented factories.
AD-BASED MUSIC DOWNLOADS TO START
LOS ANGELES — SpiralFrog .com, an ad-supported Web site that allows visitors to download music and videos free of charge, was scheduled to launch today in the U.S. and Canada after months of "beta" testing.
The music service, which has arranged to pay record companies a cut of its advertising revenue, aims to lure music fans who normally flock to online file-swapping networks to share and download music for free.
