While the Cabinet-level Fair Trade Commission has launched an investigation into accusations that Microsoft Taiwan has abused its market dominance to manipulate prices, the vice chairman of the commission told PFP lawmakers yesterday that he couldn't disclose details of the probe while the investigation is underway.
The lawmakers complained that the probe was being conducted at a snail's pace and demanded that the commission release its report within a month.
The vice chairman of the commission, Cheng Yu (
Cheng told them that for the commission to complete its work fairly and efficiently, lawmakers will have to be patient and respect its independence in arriving at a conclusion.
On May 5, PFP lawmakers charged Microsoft with charging unfair prices for its operating systems in Taiwan.
Hsieh Chang-chieh (
Fellow PFP legislator Thomas Lee (
In related news, 10 junior high schools from Taipei and Ilan counties will begin an effort to break the Microsoft monopoly on campuses by forming the Free Software Teaching Coalition starting Aug. 1.
The Taipei County Education Bureau held the first free software workshop at Fu Ying Junior High School (福營國中) in Hsinchuang, Taipei County, yesterday morning to promote the use of free software.
An important figure contributing to the workshop, Mao Ching-chen (毛慶禎), professor of library and information science at the Fu Jen Catholic University, said he found during his trips to 921 earthquake-hit communities that many people were denied access to computers, the Internet and thus information.
And while computers were donated for the quake victims and Aborigines, the high price of software remains beyond their financial reach. This situation became the driving force behind Mao's effort to promote free software.
Fu Ying Junior High School has decided to replace the Microsoft systems initially installed in its 200 computers with Linux and Openoffice, to become Taiwan's first school to use Linux.
Chang Wen-chieh (
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US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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