NEWS A Dutch company has forced Microsoft to pay damages after the software giant wrongly branded its homepage as a browser hijacker.
Ilse Media, a Dutch web firm and owner of the Netherlands' most popular portal Startpagina.nl, found that users could no longer set the portal as their homepage and were warned the site could be malicious by Microsoft's AntiSpyware software.
Director of Ilse Media Bert Wiggers told silicon.com he had repeatedly tried to contact Microsoft to let them know about their error.
"I tried to reach them, I tried to call them, I tried to send them a letter. They did not answer. I sent them a letter saying I would see them in court. Then they got their voice back."
Wiggers said he was "very insulted" when Microsoft branded Startpagina as malicious.
Wiggers added he was content with the settlement, which forced Microsoft to apologise and update its AntiSpyware software to reflect the site's non-malicious status but added he thought that turning to the law was the only way to get Microsoft to change its position.
"I don't think that without the court they would have changed [the software]... it's hard to get Microsoft on its knees," Wiggers said.
Wiggers added that six million versions of the previous beta which blocked Startpagina had been downloaded, 100,000 by Netherlands users.
A Microsoft spokeswoman said: "This specific issue has been addressed in the latest update of the Windows AntiSpyware beta, and users of the latest version can access Startpagina.nl and set it as their home page unhindered."
She added: "Microsoft has posted a notice on the websites of Microsoft Netherlands and Microsoft Belgium that includes an appeal to download the new version of Windows AntiSpyware and provides an apology for the difficulty this issue may have caused Startpagina.nl and its users."
Microsoft has agreed to pay damages to the media company but would not disclose how much. Some estimates have put the figure at €10,000.
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1. Nick Cole
The sheer volume of malicious sites and associated activities will inevitably lead to mistakes such as these.
It is the arrogance of the so-called responsible software companies that creates the anger and annoyance at their refusal to change their view or perception unless dragged kicking and screaming through the courts.
If they put that effort into providing a means of minimising damage before it gets to this disastrous and discrediting stage then we would all be happier.
People understand that faults occur - it is the way they are responded to that is of critical importance. This is what underpins all the credibility and perception issues. Get out of your ivory towers, get rid of the call-filtering contact centres and allow those who have the technical knowledge to face the customers. On every occasion after all the arguments and ringing around, whenever a technically competent person takes the call the problem is resolved in a knowledgable and acceptable fashion. And usually in far less time than it takes to get to speak to them in the first place. There are too many lawyers and non-techies in the contact chain.