(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
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Whatever happened to Professor Neil Barrett?

2024-07-24 12:33:40+00:00

Reading around EU regulators trying to regulate Microsoft for anticompetitive behaviour (and how that may recently have bitten us on the arse) — I encountered the story of Neil Barrett, whose history runs thusly, and perhaps is a salutary lesson for people who desire to be paid for assisting regulators.

https://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/7413339.neil-logs-on-to-key-role-in-investigation

Oct 2005: A FORMER computer hacker turned … Professor of Computer Criminology and expert in fraud at the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham … [was] asked by the European Union to investigate software company Microsoft and the way it operates on the continent. As trustee to the European Commission, Mr Barrett will help assess compliance with the commission’s 2004 ruling that Microsoft abused its near-monopoly in desktop computer operating systems to squeeze out rival makers of media players and to prevent competitors from designing software that worked with its servers.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/keeping-watch-over-microsoft

Oct 2005: The task should draw on Barrett’s wide range of work experience. Back in 1985, he became the United Kingdom’s youngest lecturer when he took a post at York University at age 23. He left that to become a trainer at software developer Kernel Technology in Leeds, then went on to serve as a high-tech consultant for companies in the U.K., the United States and France. He is also the author of several papers and books relating to cybercrime.

https://www.theregister.com/2007/09/17/microsoft_european_commission_verdict

Sep 2007: Microsoft has lost its appeal against European Commission charges of anti-competitive behaviour … Following the original decision Microsoft had to agree to the imposition of a trustee to oversee the company and check it was complying with court demands. A short list was drawn up and Professor Neil Barrett appointed. But the Court of First Instance ruled that this was an obligation too far. Therefore the court annuled the imposition of a trustee.

https://www.politico.eu/article/microsoft-and-the-trustees-fee

Dec 2007: Overall the European Commission scored a resounding victory over US software giant Microsoft in September when the European Court of First Instance upheld its decision to fine the company for exploiting its Windows PC operating system to crowd out rivals’ products. The only area where the court did not fully support the Commission’s sanctions was over the setting up of a monitoring trustee, an eminent computer science professor, …. The court found that the Commission had exceeded its powers in making Microsoft pick up the bill for the trustee, Neil Barrett, and his team. Now when the bills come in, the Commission will have to pay, rather than forwarding them to Microsoft. Sadly for the taxpayer, expert computer scientists like Barrett and his team are hard to come by and do not come cheap. But a Commission official said: “It’s a price worth paying.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7925718.stm

Mar 2009: In 2005, Prof Neil Barrett was appointed as a full-time monitoring trustee to assess the information Microsoft had provided … In a statement, the Commission said it “no longer requires a full time monitoring trustee to assess Microsoft’s compliance”. While it said monitoring was still “necessary” it said the information it needed could be found through other, more passive, means.

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240177803/IT-expert-in-Microsoft-monopoly-case-faces-25m-legal-fight
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[1] URL: https://alecmuffett.com/article/110097
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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