Global dispatches: an international IT news digest

30.01.2006
Microsoft promises to license source code to avoid fines

BRUSSELS -- Microsoft Corp. last week agreed to license the source code for some of the communications protocols in its Windows server software, in an attempt to avoid daily fines of '2 million (US$2.4 million) by the European Commission.

"I don't believe any decision to implement a fine is warranted," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said at a press conference in Brussels following the announcement. Smith added that the source-code licensing plan should remove "any doubts" among European officials about Microsoft's compliance with the EC's March 2004 antitrust ruling against the vendor.

However, a spokesman for European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the licensing offer is "not necessarily enough" to head off the fines. "It would be premature to conclude [that] access to the source code would resolve the problem of the lack of compliance with our decision," the spokesman said, adding that Microsoft needs to provide "the right information to allow competitors to make Microsoft-compatible workgroup server products."

As part of the antitrust ruling, the EC ordered Microsoft to license the protocols for its workgroup server software so other vendors can develop products that interoperate smoothly with Windows. Last month, the commission charged that Microsoft wasn't complying with the ruling and threatened to start fining the company.

Before Microsoft announced the licensing plan last week, the EC agreed to extend the compliance deadline that it set in December from last Wednesday to Feb. 15.