Microsoft buckles under EU pressure

By Steve Malone

Posted on 26 Jan 2006 at 10:28

In its stand-off with the European Union, Microsoft seems to have blinked first. Following threats of fines of up to €2 million a day for non compliance, Microsoft is to license all the Windows Server source code for the technologies covered by the European Commission's Decision of March 2004.

Under that ruling, the European Union had decreed that Microsoft had kept certain aspects of Windows Server code to its own programmers so that, for example, Microsoft Office applications performed better than those of rival vendors.

As part of the restitutions - which also included a record fine of €497 million - Microsoft was ordered to licence important parts of the source code for Windows Server to competitors.

Since the ruling of the Commission, Microsoft has been accused of continually dragging its feet in complying with the various demands made by the EU. It has also settled privately with many of the companies that backed the original investigation, including Sun Microsystems.

Yesterday, an EU report written by Neil Barrett, a British expert on law relating to computers, condemned Microsoft's efforts so far as 'totally unfit' for the purpose. Following the report, the EU gave a final deadline of 15th of February to come up with a convincing argument or comply.

It would seem Microsoft has chosen to comply. 'Today we are putting our most valuable intellectual property on the table so we can put technical compliance issues to rest and move forward with a serious discussion about the substance of this case,' said Brad Smith, Microsoft Senior Vice President and General Counsel, hinting that the continued game of cat and mouse with the EU was not doing Redmond any favours when it came to the appeal hearing now set for the end of April.

Smith also went on to say, 'The Windows source code is the ultimate documentation of Windows Server technologies. With this step our goal is to resolve all questions about the sufficiency of our technical documentation'. It remains to be seen whether the new offer is sufficient to satisfy Barrett and whether the terms of the licence will be prohibitively expensive.

Finally, with new versions of Windows Server, Windows and Microsoft Office all due this year it may just be that seeing the source code of Windows Server 2003 will be of academic interest only by the end of 2006.