“Remember how Microsoft spent years in hot water in the late ’90s and early ’00s by forcing Internet Explorer on its customers?” asks ZDNet.

“European open-source cloud company Nextcloud does.”

Now, with a coalition of other European Union (EU) software and cloud organizations and companies called the “Coalition for a Level Playing Field,” Nextcloud has formally complained to the European Commission about Microsoft’s anti-competitive behavior by aggressively bundling its OneDrive cloud, Teams, and other services with Windows 10 and 11.

Nextcloud claims that by pushing consumers to sign up and hand over their data to Microsoft, the Windows giant is limiting consumer choice and creating an unfair barrier for other companies offering competing services. Specifically, Microsoft has grown its EU market share to 66%, while local providers’ market share declined from 26% to 16%. Microsoft has done this not by any technical advantage or sales benefits, but by heavily favoring its own products and services, self-preferencing over other services. While self-preferencing is not illegal per se under EU competition laws, if a company abuses its dominant market position, it can break the law. Nextcloud states that Microsoft has outright blocked other cloud service vendors by leveraging its position as gatekeeper to extend its reach in neighboring markets, pushing users deeper into its ecosystems. Thus, more specialized EU companies can’t compete on merit, as the key to success is not a good product but the ability to distort competition and block market access….

So, Nextcloud is asking the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition to prevent this kind of abusive behavior and keep the market competitive and fair for all players. Nextcloud is doing this by filing an official complaint with this body. In addition, Nextcloud has also filed a request with the German antitrust authorities, the Bundeskartellamt, for an investigation against Microsoft. With its partners, it’s also discussing filing a similar complaint in France.

Nextcloud is being joined in its complaint by several open-source, non-profit organizations. These include the European DIGITAL SME Alliance; the Document Foundation, LibreOffice’s backing organization; and the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)… Numerous businesses are also supporting Nextcloud’s legal action. This includes Abilian, an open-source software publisher; DAASI, an open-source identity management company; and Mailfence.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – EU Complaint Accuses Microsoft of Anticompetitive Bundling of OneDrive, Teams in Windows

“According to a report in The Telegraph, Raspberry Pi Trading, the arm responsible for the creation of the Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi Pico and the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W could soon be listed with a value of more than £370m ($493m),” reports Tom’s Hardware:

Raspberry Pi Trading has hired advisors from two investment banks, Stifel and Liberum to advise on floating the company in spring 2022. The news comes just a few months after Raspberry Pi received a £45m ($60m) investment from Lansdowne Partners and the Ezrah Charitable Trust which was used to fund the development of new products as demand increased during the global pandemic. A source close to The Telegraph has valued Raspberry Pi at a premium of $500m…

“Obviously, the $45m we raised in September takes away some of the urgency around figuring out how we fund the future. On the other hand, we have great plans for what we are going to do over the next five years.” Eben Upton, talking to The Telegraph.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Raspberry Pi Trading Could Go Public This Spring

CNN profiles Magnus Carlsen, the world’s best chess player — and the state of the chess community today:

Interest in chess spiked at the beginning of the pandemic, and again in October 2020 after the release of the Netflix series, “The Queen’s Gambit.” In the first three weeks after its debut, sales of chess sets went up by 87% in the U.S. and sales of books about chess leaped 603%, according to marketing research company NPD Group. Not since the 1970s, when American legend Bobby Fischer burst onto the scene, has the game captured the attention of the world like this….

Carlsen tries hard to be indifferent toward anything at all during the press conference and interview. But he does have strong opinions on how the game should be changed to make sure it holds the attention of the current groundswell of interested players. “I’ve been somebody who’s supported having quicker games in the world championship for a long time,” he said. “I think for people who are not into chess at all, who don’t know anything about the game, you’re more naturally attracted to quicker games.” World championship games can last hours and often end in ties because mistakes are so rare…

Carlsen’s love of fast-paced chess isn’t surprising, considering he is the current world champion in both “Rapid” and “Blitz” formats — games that generally last for 15 minutes or less. His tiebreak wins in previous championship games were both in the rapid format and there are numerous videos on YouTube where his quick thinking is showcased. Computers are now powerful enough to calculate billions of possible move combinations in seconds, ably deciding the best possible option. It makes preparation more exacting and less enjoyable, and Carlsen thinks quicker games would help solve that…

Carlsen could rightly be considered the greatest chess player ever. He has been the world champion for eight years and holds the longest unbeaten run in history. He only trails Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov in weeks spent as the highest rated player.

But the New York Times points out that Carlsen has done something none of his chess-playing predecessors have ever done. “He has leveraged his fame to become one of the chess world’s leading impresarios. In the process, he has amassed a small fortune.”
Carlsen has several private sponsorship agreements, including with Unibet, a sports betting site; Isklar, a Norwegian water company; and Simonsen Vogt Wiig, a Norwegian law firm. But the main vehicle for his business ventures is Play Magnus, a company that he co-founded in 2013, the year he became world champion. Initially designed as an app that allowed users to mimic Carlsen’s playing style and strength at different ages, Play Magnus has expanded, mostly through acquisitions, to become a company with a dozen subsidiaries. It now includes an online playing site, multiple teaching and training platforms, and digital and book publishing arms.

According to Andreas Thome, Play Magnus’s chief executive, the company has about 250 employees and about four million registered users of its products and proprietary learning programs. One year after it went public on the Euronext Growth Oslo stock exchange, Play Magnus now has a market capitalization of about $115 million. It is the only publicly traded chess company in the world.
Carlsen’s personal stake in the company is worth nearly $9 million, the Times points out — even as Carlsen is now competing in the world chess championship for a $2.24 million prize, where “as much as 60% will go to the winner.”
In the 14-game match, the first two games…all ended in a draw. “The result means there have now been 16 draws in a row in world championship games played at classical time controls,” the Guardian pointed out, “dating back five years to game 11 of Carlsen’s match against Sergey Karjakin in November 2016.”

And then the third game, played Sunday….also ended in a draw.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – World Chess Champion Urges Quicker Games, Is Also Rich

Movie theatre chain AMC and Sony Pictures are giving away 86,000 Spider-man NFTs to people who buy/reserve tickets for December 16th’s premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The special tickets go on sale tonight at midnight EST on the AMC web site and app (available only to people who’ve signed up for one of the chain’s special perks programs like Stubs Premiere, A-List, and Investor Connect). “The movie ticket must be scanned at the theatre when the guest arrives for the movie,” explains the movie industry site Boxoffice Pro. “If the ticket purchase is refunded or the ticket goes unused, or is not scanned, the NFT code will not be delivered.”

The Spider-Man NFT will be available to be redeemed at a dedicated site operated by WAX, an energy efficient, ultra-low carbon footprint blockchain and the first certified carbon neutral. WAX is the most utilized blockchain in the world processing 15 million transactions daily.

Adam Aron, Chairman of the Board and CEO of AMC, commented: “Our AMC Theatres guests and our AMC Entertainment shareholders have been calling for AMC to get into the world of NFTs, and we couldn’t imagine a more perfect way to start doing so than with our good friends at Sony Pictures.”

Over 100 NFT designs will be available (designed by Cub Studios), the announcement points out

In a tweet Sunday, AMC’s CEO said the idea came from the company’s shareholders.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Sony and AMC Offer NFTs to ‘Spider-Man’ Advance Ticket Buyers