2015考研英语阅读集中练A Matter of Sovereignty_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读集中练A Matter of Sovereignty

　　For the time being, the commission can apply the precedents set by the Microsoft ruling in only one case: Google, the world s leading web-search and online-advertising firm. Just as America s Federal Trade Commission is now doing, the EU s competition authorities will look closely at Google s planned takeover of Double Click, another leader in online advertising. And if Google becomes a central storage vault for data such as users location and identity, as some fear, European regulators may one day try to compel the firm to give rivals open access to this information-rather as they have now forced Microsoft to release its communication protocols.

　　Microsoft itself is not out of legal trouble, even if it chooses not to appeal. The commission has yet to determine whether the information the firm has supplied will really ensure interoperability. Still open, too, is the issue of how much Microsoft can charge firms that want to license its protocols. Then there is the question of whether Microsoft should be forced to license, the information to makers of open-source software. The firm argues that this would be tantamount to giving away the shop, but the commission thinks it would promote competition by advancing open-source rivals to Microsoft s products. And further investigations may yet follow into Office, Microsoft s dominant suite of business software, and Vista, the latest version of Windows.

　　No wonder Microsoft is stoking fears that the commission plans to go on an antitrust rampage. It has prompted a political backlash that may discourage the EU from staying on the case. In America the talk is of a new form of protectionism . After the European court s decision Thomas Barnett, the head of the antitrust division of the Department of Justice, warned that it may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition .