Oracle sues companies it says provide Solaris OS support in illegal manner

Oracle is continuing to crack down on companies it claims are providing support services for its products in an illegal fashion.

Last week, Oracle sued IT services providers Terix and Maintech, alleging they have "engaged in a deliberate scheme to misappropriate and distribute copyrighted, proprietary Oracle software code" in the course of providing support for customers using Oracle's Solaris OS.

Terix and Maintech officials have "falsely told unwitting end users they are authorized to access and distribute Solaris Updates to the end users and/or that the end users are entitled to perpetual support on [Solaris], including to receive Solaris Updates, based on their original purchase on the hardware on which the operating system was installed," adds Oracle's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

But Oracle, "and Sun before it, have long required customers to purchase an annual support agreement to receive that support," according to the complaint.

Oracle customers who buy support services receive an identification number that allows them to create a login for Oracle's support site and download updates for systems covered under the agreement, Oracle said.

Terix and Maintech induced a number of customers, including Sony, Comcast and Bank of New York Mellon, to "improperly obtain unauthorized Solaris Updates, including by using login credentials to Oracle's password-protected support sites after their Oracle support on the relevant servers had expired," according to the complaint.

Terix and Maintech convinced customers to cancel their support agreements with Oracle by "falsely representing" they could legally provide service and support for less money, it adds.

Oracle is asking for both a preliminary and permanent injunction against the defendants, an order dictating the return of any of Oracle's intellectual property they hold, and punitive damages and restitution.

One of the companies named in Oracle's suit strongly denied the allegations.

"Oracles complaint is without any basis in either law or fact," Terix CEO Bernd Appleby said in an emailed statement Thursday.

"Terix fully respects and diligently strives to protect the intellectual property of any third party," Appleby added. "Terix acts only as an authorized agent of the end-users, pursuant to their rights, to facilitate support services. Each end-user referenced in the complaint has valid license, rights, entitlements and credentials provided by Oracle. Each end-user has their unique login credentials which are only used for the sole benefit of that end-user and are never shared."

Maintech couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Oracle's allegations are similar to ones it has made in lawsuits against other Solaris service providers, such as ServiceKey, as well as Rimini Street, which provides third-party support for Oracle and SAP applications.

Like Terix, other third-party providers have maintained they operate within the legal boundaries of customers' license rights.

Software vendors derive handsome profits from support and maintenance revenues, which also provide continuous income even when customers scale back on new license purchases, and are undoubtedly loath to see money siphoned away to third parties.

There are a few lessons for all customers to take away from the swirl of ongoing litigation, said analyst Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research.

"Customers who have paid maintenance should always be in the process of downloading all the patches, updates, and fixes they are entitled to before they cancel the contract," Wang said via email.

"It's an unfair trade practice to force customers away from third party maintenance options," he added. "This lock-in is monopolistic in general, regardless of the vendor. Customers should make sure they do not bundle any Oracle and Sun contracts to avoid any other issues that continue a lock-in behavior."

UK's PM warns Internet companies to ban child abuse search terms

The British government wants Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to block Internet searches that are likely to lead to child abuse images. Internet search providers have until October to commit to banning lists of keywords deemed abusive or the government will consider legislation to force them, the U.K.'s Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday in a speech.

Some people are putting "simply appalling" terms into search engines in order to find illegal images of child abuse and they're getting results, Cameron said Sunday in an interview broadcast by the BBC.

The U.K. government needs to have a "very, very strong conversation" with Internet search providers and tell them that they shouldn't provide results for terms that are "depraved and disgusting," he said.

The interview was in advance of a speech the Prime Minister gave Monday that focused on removing child abuse content from the Internet and preventing children from accessing pornography.

"Put simply - there needs to be a list of terms -- a black list -- which offer up no direct search returns," Cameron said, according to a draft version of the speech text published on his office's website. "I have a very clear message for Google, Bing, Yahoo and the rest: You have a duty to act on this -- and it is a moral duty."

Arguments that a ban on searches that clearly reflect the "sick and malevolent intent of the searcher" would violate freedom of speech will not be accepted, he said.

Cameron said that more general search queries like "child sex" should return options like: "Do you mean child sex education?" or "Do you mean child gender?" In addition, "abhorrent" combinations of search keywords that are clearly related to child abuse should return no result at all, Cameron said.

Internet search providers have until October to answer whether they are willing to commit to censor results for search terms on a blacklist compiled by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP Center), a law enforcement organization affiliated with the U.K.'s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) that is dedicated to fighting the sexual abuse of children.

If the answer given by the companies in October is not satisfactory, or their progress is slow or non-existent, the government might take a regulatory approach.

"I can tell you we are already looking at the legislative options we have to force action," Cameron said.

The Prime Minister expects companies to set their "greatest brains" to work on any implementation issues and technical obstacles.

"You hold hackathons for people to solve impossible Internet conundrums," Cameron said. "Well -- hold a hackathon for child safety."

"We have a zero tolerance attitude to child sexual abuse imagery," a Google representative said Monday via email. "We use our own systems and work with child safety experts to find it, remove and report it. We recently donated 5 million U.S. dollars to groups working to combat this problem and are committed to continuing the dialogue with the Government on these issues."

"We will support the work of third parties in running education and deterrence campaigns on our platforms and are already actively engaged in discussions with CEOP and others about their proposals," a Yahoo representative said via email.

"Microsoft will support education and deterrence campaigns to target those seeking to access indecent and illegal images of children," a Microsoft representative said in an emailed statement. "Our PhotoDNA technology is already widely used across the industry to help prevent the proliferation of known illegal images and we remain completely committed to helping tackle the scourge of online child abuse content."

The Open Rights Group (ORG), an U.K.-based digital rights watchdog organization doesn't believe that banning certain search terms would be an effective approach.

"Most child abuse images are circulated in private networks, or are sold by criminal gangs," said ORG Executive Director Jim Killock in a blog post Sunday. "Banning search terms seems unlikely to combat the serious activity, which is independent of search engines."

Furthermore, even if some identifiable search terms would indeed bring up illegal images, banning those terms will likely lead to people looking for such content inventing new terms to find it, Killock said.

"Cameron invites a game of cat and mouse which is likely to have very limited impact," he said. "The terms used may hide themselves into search terms that cannot be banned because they are innocuous."

Such a ban might also affect the ability of organizations like the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to identify child abuse images using search engines and report them to the proper authorities, Killock said.

Cameron said in his speech that search engine providers already block abusive images reported by the IWF, but mentioned that the organization is too small to identify all of them because it relies almost entirely on members of the public reporting abusive content they've seen online.

The IWF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether such a ban would impact its ability to identify child abuse images.

"Cameron's announcement is symptomatic of the way the Internet is viewed and treated by policy makers," Killock said. "The technical challenges and consequences of policies are viewed as less important than the moral purpose justifying calls for action."

SAS Institute, National Instruments top list of companies with good work-life balance

Sixteen of the top 25 companies offering a good work-life balance are technology companies, according to a new ranking from the job site Glassdoor, with the SAS Institute and National Instruments leading the pack.
The SAS Institute, which makes business analytics software for industries ranging from casinos to oil and gas providers, occupied the number-one spot on Glassdoor's third annual ranking of the top companies for work-life balance, up from number four last year. National Instruments, which makes automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software, was ranked second.

Other enterprise IT companies such as Slalom Consulting, Mentor Graphics, FactSet and Agilent Technologies also ranked high on the list. Other companies offering consumer services and products, like Yahoo, AOL, Nokia and MasterCard, were also named.

It is not surprising that SAS topped the list. The Cary, North Carolina-based company provides a dedicated work-life department staffed by eight full-time social workers who provide services to employees, for free, that include support services for child development, aging and elder care, and advising for the college search process.

The department offers 140 work-life consultations per month, on average, the company said. Last year, 5,500 SAS employees, family members and retirees attended nearly 200 seminars and webinars offered by the department.

"It's not just cultural -- we have a team here that's devoted to teaching work-life balance," a company spokeswoman said in an interview. The company's work-life department has been in operation for more than a decade. SAS also offers a summer camp program for children of employees, on the company's main campus in Cary, North Carolina.

SAS ranked fourth on the Glassdoor list last year.

Companies had to have at least 50 approved work-life balance ratings in the past year to be considered, said the online jobs community site, which lets employees write anonymous reviews. More than half a million company reviews were submitted to Glassdoor during the past 12 months, the site said. Work-life balance ratings are based on a five-point scale, with 1 being "very dissatisfied," 3 being "OK" and 5 being "very satisfied."

On the Glassdoor site, employees also filled out a pros and cons section to explain why they gave the rating they did, such as noting that the company offered flexible scheduling, or that their manager understood that they had a life outside of work. This was factored into the rankings, but the list was primarily based on the 1-5 scale, a Glassdoor spokeswoman said.

For Glassdoor's ranking, SAS achieved a work-life balance rating of 4.5 out of a possible 5, while National Instruments scored 4.3. The number three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and 11 companies on the list, which all achieved the same rating of 4.1, were: Slalom Consulting, MITRE, Orbitz Worldwide, Scottrade, Mentor Graphics, FactSet, Agilent Technologies, Nokia and MathWorks.

National Instruments could not be immediately reached to comment on the ranking. The Austin, Texas-based company, however, does provide a dedicated training professional within each major business function, who works with supervisors and employees to drive development opportunities and career satisfaction, according to the company's website.

Meanwhile, Yahoo, at number 16, made the list for the first time. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made headlines last year with a change in policy that prevented employees from working from home. But maternity and paternity benefits were recently extended at Yahoo to give mothers four months of paid leave and fathers two months.

Technology's growing ability to keep people connected 24/7 is making it tougher to maintain a healthy work-life balance, a Glassdoor spokeswoman said.

The company's data support that argument -- the average work-life balance rating on the site has dropped from 3.5 in 2009, to a 3.4 in 2011, to a 3.2 thus far in 2013, the spokeswoman said.
Technology giants Apple, Google and Facebook did not make the list.

Apple Buys 2 Mapping Companies

Apple is deepening its mapping skills, buying two start-ups that specialize in location technology.
Apple said on Friday that it had bought the two small companies, HopStop and Locationary, giving Apple more expertise in an area where it has struggled. HopStop is an application that can be used to get directions within cities and shows real-time traffic delays. The other start-up, Locationary, is based in Toronto and specializes in maps and mapping data, according to its Web site.
 Hopstop’s iPhone app. Apple would not disclose terms of the deals. “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time,” said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, “and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Apple has been deepening its mapping software since it introduced Apple Maps on iOS devices last year. The company promoted the new maps as a major feature of the iPhone 5. But the software was filled with problems, often sending people in the wrong direction and making some satellite photos look like modern artwork rather than maps.

In September, Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, posted an apology letter on the company’s Web site saying he was “extremely sorry” for the anguish caused by the app. Some problems still plague the app, and these acquisitions are most likely part of Apple’s effort to improve its service.

HopStop was founded in 2005 with the idea that someone could type two addresses into a Web site and get reliable directions for public transportation. The company overhauled its mobile app in 2013 to add traffic data. The app’s traffic data is based on updates from people using the application, much like Waze, a company bought by Google last month for about $1 billion. 

What McAfee's acquisition of Stonesoft means for the companies and their customers

Intel-owned McAfee has completed its acquisition of Finnish firewall company Stonesoft, following a $389m deal announced in May, but what does this mean for the companies and their customers?

McAfee acquires a modern firewall technology to bolster and round out its network security offerings, while Stonesoft gets the backing of a strong brand, including access to McAfee's global customers, technical and sales support, and distribution networks and channel.

This is fairly important for Stonesoft because despite the strength of its technology, a lack of presence in North America may have stifled its growth, according to Javvad Malik, senior analyst, enterprise security practice, at 451 Research.

"With the McAfee brand behind it, we could see Stonesoft become a bigger player in the market," he told Computer Weekly.

As far as McAfee is concerned, the acquisition should mean that it will be able to expand its share of the enterprise market, with enterprises currently spending around 25% of their annual budget on network security, according to Forrester.

The enterprise network security equipment market is forecast to grow at a 7% compound annual growth rate during the next five years to reach $11.4bn by 2017, according to Gartner. The analyst firm predicts particularly high growth in the next-generation firewall market – rising from $500m in 2012 to $4.6bn in 2016.

Network security has become even more important in light of the fact that a fast-growing mobile market and a declining PC market is likely to have a negative impact on McAfee’s core desktop security business.

While helping McAfee capitalise on market growth and demand, the move also fits into the security firm’s Security Connected strategy and vision.

“From a McAfee security standpoint, the purchase makes sense. McAfee has been diversifying outside of simple endpoint antivirus onto the network, and this purchase fits in nicely,” said Malik.

“However, it is slightly less clear how this fits in with Intel’s grand plan of things,” he said.

Ashish Patel, Stonesoft’s UK-based regional director, said the acquisition demonstrates that large companies such as McAfee and Intel understand that “there are groundbreaking technologies out there that need to be brought into the mix”.

Such acquisitions, he said, help encourage innovation by bringing new funding into an industry.

But what about the customers?

According to Tyler Shields, senior analyst at Forrester, how customers will be affected depends largely on how McAfee integrates the Stonesoft products into its current offerings.

“This will determine the long-term effectiveness of the acquisition,” he told Computer Weekly.

Stonesoft's advanced evasion technique (AET) research could be used to bolster the entire McAfee product line, said Shields, while its next-generation firewall offering will likely be seen as a market upgrade to the McAfee Sidewinder product.

The AET expertise will provide added protection for McAfee customers against new and emerging threats that combine several different known evasion methods to create a new technique that is delivered over several layers of the network simultaneously.

“McAfee is going for a unified next-generation security architecture play with this acquisition, setting its sights on the big players such as Cisco and Juniper,” he said.

In turn, McAfee’s expertise and cloud-based Global Threat Intelligence (GTI) service will give combined customers “unparalleled security”, said Stonesoft’s Patel.

Patel said the GTI capability is one of McAfee’s core strengths and will be one of the technologies that will be added to Stonesoft’s portfolio to take its products ahead by “leaps and bounds”.

Combined customers will also benefit from having one supplier that can provide visibility on the endpoint and across the network layer.

“This can help in having one view and one product to manage malicious or suspicious activity across both channels,” he said.

However, Malik pointed out that unlike the US, where if you acquire over 50% of a company you own it, in Finland it is nearer 90%.

“It will probably take a few months before McAfee will be able to properly start stitching together some of the seams,” he said.

Il Cinema Ritrovato's Peter Von Bagh: DVD Companies Doing Work of Archives (Q&A)

BOLOGNA, ITALY – These days, nearly every A-list film festival has a section dedicated to old gems. Cannes started its Cannes Classics sidebar in 2004, and Venice and then Berlin have joined in.

But Italy’s Il Cinema Ritrovato was there first. Organized by the Cineteca di Bologna and backed by the Italian city’s municipal authorities, the week-long festival is now in its 27th edition, which ends on Saturday.

The festival is the film geek’s version of heaven, with screenings of classic and rare films organized into innovative sections. The regular showcase of short frilms from a century ago and is “Rediscovered and Restored” section are joined this year by a look a 1960s Czech films shot on the unique Orwo stock. These include well-known films like Jiri Menzel’s Oscar-winning Closely Watched Trains, and some less acknowledged works such as Vojcech Jasny’s The Cassandra Cat.

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These screenings are usually supplemented with seminars, and the festival also boasts long-running research projects on the life and career of Charlie Chaplin. Allan Dwan and Jerry Lewis are also feted at the festival this year. Not that this is a completely inward-looking event. The festival also acknowledged how the survival and rediscovery of classics from around the world is reliant on the commercial instincts of home entertainment producers.

Now in his 13th year as the festival’s artistic director, Finnish filmmaker-archivist-scholar Peter Von Bagh is the director of grand documentaries about his home country dating back from the 1970s.

Bagh down with The Hollywood Reporter in between his screenings, seminars and dinner dates to talk about Il Cinema Ritrovato’s importance and how DVD producers are filling in the void left by cash-stricken European film archives.

The Hollywood Reporter: How much has the festival evolved from its roots?

Peter Von Bagh: I don’t know whether it has “evolved” as it might be something negative. When I started [coming to the festival] it was basically just one huge cinema and everybody was sitting there and they only saw one set of films. And then obviously at some point there was a second cinema [added] – I remember then, when I was not involved in the festival, I opposed it. I think it was ideal to have all of us sitting together and discussing the same film, the same emotions and so on – and it worked beautifully.

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Then I criminally ditched my convictions because during my time – I didn’t make the big decisions alone, and I tend to agree with [the festival organizers] – it has become much bigger, four cinemas and really much more people coming from all over the world. You can even say it’s become more popular… and really it has a certain reputation.

I think it’s pretty natural why this happened because nowadays the offers of commercial cinemas is worse than ever in my lifetime. It’s impossible to follow it because there seems to be no hope. And there are some festivals who are running just as [a showcase of] previews for commercial repertory and they have less and less ambition for retrospectives and even big festivals like Cannes only run digital things. So I mean it’s pretty hopeless for a cinephile who loves cinema deeply.

There is no place to go and [Il Cinema Ritrovato] is one where you are certain from nine o’clock in the morning until midnight you have something very, very interesting.

THR: How much has the program changed during these years then?

Von Bagh:The structure is pretty much the same. The huge part is silent films, more than that in Poderone. So those who love silent films can come here and sit all the time in silent movies. Then we have our favorite sections, repeating sections which are huge parts of the festival – for example, the screening of films from 100 years ago is something of a very strong part, it has a very clear idea.

But some sections are poignantly pointing to the importance of auteurs and digitals – we have for the past 12 years running Cinemascope films, which began 50 or 60 years ago. We have the historical series, and now it’s [“War Is Near”], with films from about two years before the Second World War started in Europe – of course in Asia it was going on already for almost ten years.

And there were always important filmmakers, actors and actresses. The whole philosophy here in Bologna was [established] before I came to work here. I was just following the lead and I can’t claim to have invented much – it’s very strong because two persons were very clever and intelligent – Gian Luca Farinelli and Nicola Mazzanti who founded this thing [in 1986] at the age of something like 22. It needs young people to invent something like this.

THR: And there are the DVD awards, which are pretty different an enterprise than the more academic or aesthetically-inclined parts of the festival.

Von Bagh:The best DVD companies are doing the same kind of job that we are doing. And with additional [features] they are unearthing good material, they are doing exactly the job that film archives should be doing.

THR: So how does the festival interact with this development, this relationship with the more commercial aspects of this rediscovering-film pursuit?

Von Bagh: Probably DVDs help us, because they brought classics into the world, available to many people. Blu-Ray is more limited even if it involves better technique. But I think they created the need to see [films] properly, and the philosophy [at the festival] is to show films in the best copies you can ever find. [But] digital is another thing which I don’t like. I don’t like this trend of digital restorations, but there are many archives who are doing them.

There was this showing of a Riccardo Freda film [Beatrice Cenci from 1956] a moment ago and there was somebody from Rome Film Archive who said it’s a question of money. Europe is very poor and European archives don’t have the money to do real restorations. This is one sad thing, I would say. But the main part of the program is still fantastic, you see we have all good relationships with archives, we can take the best view of some films.

THR: More and more DVD companies are coming to the festival too…

Von Bagh:These people come here and we have very good relations with them and we have tremendous respect for their work, because the DVD publishing published restorations, reconstructions and lost sequences and things like that, they are doing the work that the archives should have had done. But the archives don’t have the money the DVD companies have so… The only thing I’m sorry about is that it’s for home entertainment, it’s very good for private people but it doesn’t do at all for the existence of film as a culture seen in cinemas.

Some Tech Companies Find Ways Not To Hire Americans

Tech workers looking for jobs may think twice before looking at job ads that are targeted at Americans but actually are intended for foreigners.
Tech workers looking for jobs may think twice before looking at job ads that are targeted at Americans but actually are intended for foreigners.

Lawmakers continue to wrangle over a bill that would overhaul the nation's immigration system. One provision in this bill would allow companies to import a lot more skilled workers. The tech industry has lobbied hard for this, despite fears among some American workers about the extra competition.

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin says the bill has American workers covered. "Employers will be given a chance to hire a temporary foreign worker when truly needed. But first, they'll be required to recruit Americans. No exceptions, no excuses," he said.

Still, making companies recruit Americans isn't the same as making them hire them.

If you talk to disgruntled tech workers much, sooner or later one of them is going to send you this video. It shows a Pittsburgh immigration lawyer at what looks like a seminar for clients in 2007. In the video, he's telling clients what to do when they want to sponsor one of their foreign workers for a permanent visa — a green card. The government requires employers to prove they looked for American workers first. So the companies have to advertise the job. But the lawyer tells them they don't have to advertise it too conspicuously.

"Our goal is, clearly, not to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker," the lawyer in the video says. He later adds, "We're going to find a place where ... we're complying with the law and hoping — and likely — not to find qualified and interested worker applicants."

Immigration law firms do this all the time: They show employers how to recruit Americans without actually having to hire them. This lawyer didn't want to talk to NPR, maybe because anti-visa activists have been sending this video around for years. It's Exhibit A in their argument that recruiting rules are a sham.

In the parts of the country where tech companies are prevalent, this kind of "faux recruiting" is common knowledge. But people in the industry quickly learn not to waste their time on certain job listings, says Orion Hughes, a software tester.

"A lot of us are aware of that ruse," he says.

Hughes and others avoid the listings with overly specific requirements, such as the number of years in "the job offered." That often means the employer just wants to make permanent a temporary foreign worker who's already in the job. And if you're stubborn enough to apply anyway, Hughes says that interview is going to be awkward.

"If you want to put yourself in that manager's shoes, it's an uncomfortable situation for them," he says. "They will [have a] kind of a sour facial expression, and they'll go from one question to the next. They are finding some reason to exclude you."

Employers usually go through these motions only when they're sponsoring a foreigner for a permanent visa. But now the Senate immigration bill would extend a similar requirement to temp workers: the foreigners on the H-1B visas which have become so common, and controversial, in lower-end tech jobs. It's a move that seems to ignore all the ill will that's been created by hopeless job interviews.

"No one is ever hired," says Bruce Morrison, a former Democratic congressman from Connecticut.

Morrison helped design the current work visa system, but now he's an immigration lawyer and a lobbyist. The "good faith" recruiting process, he says, comes with a fundamental flaw, he says.

"Which is, it doesn't start until you've already picked the person you want," Morrison says. "The decision whether to hire an American already happened — and you didn't."

Morrison's one of many experts who've given up on these recruiting rules. But he offers a solution to the problem: Have the government charge employers a heftier fee when hiring a foreigner.

"Create the economic circumstance where it costs you a lot more to hire a foreigner," Morrison says. "And you'll only do it if you can't find an American who's suitable."

The Senate bill takes small steps in this direction, but Morrison thinks it's not nearly enough. The bill actually removes the recruiting rule for some of the permanent visas — and he's happy about that. Morrison's been lobbying to get more green cards to skilled workers. But now it looks like the "recruit-Americans-first" idea is being shifted to temporary visas, the H-1Bs.

That means the tech industry will still be plagued by insincere job listings and bogus interviews, and the undercurrent of resentment that they create.

 

Rivals: Google should be regulated like telcos and electricity companies

Companies who have been assessing Google’s planned remedies to anti-competitive practices called on the European Commission on Tuesday to reject them and to consider regulating Internet search.

 

Google has been under investigation by the Commission since November 2010 after rivals accused the search giant of setting its algorithm to direct users to its own services by reducing the visibility of competing websites and services. It was also accused of content-scraping and imposing contractual restrictions that prevent advertisers from moving their online campaigns to rival search engines.

 

On April 25 Google proposed specific measures to address these complaints and rivals and interested parties were invited by the Commission to “market test” them. That testing period ends on Thursday.

 

However, Michael Weber, CEO of Hot Map, said the testing period had not been long enough. “You cannot do a serious scientific study in one month,” he said. Weber and others asked the Commission for a two- to three-month extension, but were only granted four extra weeks.

 

Weber was unimpressed with Google’s remedies and said that a formal statement of objections from the European Commission’s antitrust department would have been better than the current negotiations.

 

Google has proposed to label its preferred links to its own sites in search results. But publishers say that this will mislead consumers into thinking these were somehow tailor-made results for search queries and interests, thereby causing even greater harm to competition.

 

Google also proposes to include links to rival search engines for specialist restaurant search results that generate revenue for Google. Google’s paid-for services would be separated from general search and treated more like advertising.

 

Finally, Google has agreed to remove exclusivity provisions from all future contracts and any legacy advertising contracts and will offer tools to prevent Web scraping by allowing content owners to opt out.

 

But many complainants who met in Brussels on Tuesday to present their position on the remedies said that search is such an important Internet tool that it should be regulated like a telecommunications or electric utilities.

 

“Everyone relies on it,” said Weber. “Unfortunately no one planning the digital single market thought that a single company would control access to the Internet.” Google has 95 percent of the search market in the E.U.

 

Thomas Vinje, legal counsel and spokesman for FairSearch Europe, which represents some of the complainants, said that in putting Google’s remedies forward for market testing, the Commission made clear that it thought they were “palatable” and “worthy of discussion.” But he, too, called on the Commission to reject the remedies.

 

Many complainants said the remedies don’t go far enough since they won’t apply to redirected searches to new top level domains such as .fly or .hotel.

 

Others thought that the remedies wouldn’t make much difference to Google anyway. “Google will exploit the loopholes. Look at what they do with regard to tax,” said Kate Sutton, commercial director of Streetmap.

 

Meanwhile hundreds of publishers and their trade associations wrote an open letter calling on Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia to reject Google’s draft remedies completely.

 

“As a minimum requirement, Google must hold all services, including its own, to exactly the same standards, using exactly the same crawling, indexing, ranking, display and penalty algorithms,” said one of the signatories, Helmut Heinen, president of the Federation of German Newspaper Publishers.

 

Feedback from the market test will be taken into account in the Commission’s final analysis. However, it is the Commission that Google’s remedies must satisfy, not any other party involved. If a solution isn’t found, the Commission could still fine the company up to 10 percent of its annual global revenue.