Microsoft Foes Battle IE Ballot Screen Proposal

The European Commission is reportedly looking to wrap up its longstanding antitrust case against Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, but Microsoft's opponents are urging regulators not to accept the software giant's latest proposal for breaking the IE impasse.

The European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS), an industry organization whose members include Opera, Adobe Systems, IBM, Oracle, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems, says Microsoft's proposed "ballot screen" doesn't represent a solution to the issue of IE bundling, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend.

The problem is that users that try to select a browser other than IE are presented with "threatening and confusing warnings and questions," Thomas Vinje of Clifford Chance LLP, the ECIC's lawyer, told The Wall Street Journal.

On Monday, Hakon Wium Lie, Opera's chief technology officer, told Reuters he's concerned that the EU may accept Microsoft's proposal without fully considering its implications.

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