Apparently on the offensive again, this time Microsoft has lashed out at the EU claiming that their sanctions are based on "new law" and that in fact it can hurt the tech industry at large. 

The timing of its attack steals the EU's thunder ahead of the publication of the full report on the software behemoth expected today. A seven-page paper, posted late Wednesday on Microsoft's website, is a cross between a treatise and a legal brief, citing both the potential damage of the ruling as well as alleged legal shortcomings of the decision.

"The Commission is seeking to make new law that will have an adverse impact on intellectual property rights and the ability of dominant firms to innovate," Microsoft said. "This adverse impact will not be confined to the software industry or to Europe."

Let us not be disillusioned enough to think that Microsoft actually has the welfare of the entire EU…no…world tech community in their best interests in writing this paper.  Folks…I hate to be a cynic, but lets face it, Microsoft is a corporate citizen and if they are nothing else, they are media savvy.  Those folks up in Redmond know how to work the media machine. 

In my humble opinion this paper is nothing if it is not intellectually dishonest.  Nothing more and nothing less.  If Microsoft was listening, I would tell them not to fight this battle in the court of public opinion, because frankly, no one out here believes what they say anyway, particularly when it is so obviously self serving.