Microsoft claims 'breakthrough' in eleventh-hour talks to soothe EU

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 3 Apr 2006 at 12:45

Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith emerged from EU talks with what he decribes as a 'blueprint' for compliance as the company holds emergency talks to stave off daily multi-million Euro fines

Microsoft's general counsel Brad Smith emerged from two days of closed-door discussions with the EU over its alleged failure to fully meet the terms of the antitrust ruling claiming a 'breakthrough' had been reached.

The world's biggest software company faces fines of up to €2mn a day for its failure to fully meet provisions that it make data available to rival companies that wish to build products that can interoperate with Microsoft programs.

Last month an independent, Microsoft-approved monitoring trustee appointed by the EU described Microsoft's efforts in this respect as 'incomplete, inaccurate and unusable'.

Acording to Bloomberg, Smith told reporters that the talks had been fruitful and that his company now had a 'blueprint' on which to rebuild its technical documentation.

However, others at the hearing were less enthusiastic about the outcome. According to an interview on Groklaw with Carlo Piana, counsel to the Free Software Foundation Europe, who provided a statement during the hearing, Microsoft's suggestion that the language of the provisions for the disclosure and licensing of its technical data was: 'completely unacceptable, because the decision was clear'.

He also failed to see the breakthrough described by Smith. He said that despite the professed intentions of Microsoft to make every effort to comply, there was no reason why they couldn't gave done so successfully already. Moreover, the company looked immovable on the issues of licensing, which currently prevents the use of Microsoft's source code by Free Software, such as the popular SAMBA project.

Piana says he was not expecting a ruling on whether Microsoft had neglected its compliance obligations in the immediate future and that, should it go against Microsoft, it is likely Microsoft would appeal to the Court of First Instance as it did over the 2004 antitrust Decision.