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Microsoft in compliance with 2004 ruling, EC says

Time: 09:59 EST/14:59 GMT | News Source: ComputerWorld | Posted By: Jonathan Tigner

Microsoft Corp. has made substantial concessions to the European Commission, finally bringing the company into compliance with a 2004 antitrust ruling, the commission said Monday.

"Microsoft has finally agreed to three substantial changes to bring them into compliance with the decision," the EC said in a statement.

The first change the company has agreed to is that open-source software developers will be able to access and use the interoperability information, as required in the 2004 ruling.

Second, the royalties payable for this information will be reduced to a nominal one-time payment of $14,140, and third, the royalties for a worldwide license, including patents, will be sharply reduced, the commission said.

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#1 By 20505 (216.102.144.11) at Monday, October 22, 2007 09:48:07 PM

Surprised no one's commented on this one. I think its big MS news.

#2 By 15406 (99.224.112.94) at Monday, October 22, 2007 10:35:47 PM

The way the news is being spun, you'd think it was a Christmas present from MS. They were accused, found guilty and ordered to license their server protocols in a RAND fashion. After three years of foot-dragging, they finally comply with the order and somehow MS is being painted as the beneficial party making 'substantial concessions'. When someone is ordered to jail for 30 days, they aren't making 'substantial concessions' by showing up to the jail to serve their sentence. This wasn't a negotiation with back-and-forth bartering or anything.

#3 By 9589 (75.183.120.233) at Tuesday, October 23, 2007 01:04:01 AM

#2 Gee, Latch, we are all sorry that you didn't get your "pound of flesh!" lol

Meanwhile, the companies that caused this suit to be brought by the EU to Microsoft are all but vanquished and Microsoft is stronger than ever.

Hey, did everybody hear that the EU, the "country" without a constitution, now has a "treaty" in lieu of a constitution. Note, that the main reason that Belguim and France failed to ratify the EU constitution in their respective referendums is that they feared competition!

Speaking of competition, I wonder how much England and France will enfuse Air Bus with additional capital given they are again falling behind Boeing? What? No, EU lawsuit? I am shocked.

#4 By 12071 (203.158.56.68) at Tuesday, October 23, 2007 06:07:02 AM

#2 How can you honestly be surprised? Everyone expects Microsoft to get away with everything they do... simply by paying off... i mean lobbying the right people like they do in the US of A! This is completely unexpected and most of the zealots on this forum are completely shell shocked to think that Microsoft might actually be punished! This is why you hear so much anti-EU propaganda from a few vocal individuals - they can't stand that someone else other there would dare to fine their great US company.

#5 By 13030 (198.22.121.110) at Tuesday, October 23, 2007 09:38:47 AM

I have mixed feelings about this. While there is no doubt that Microsoft has abused its monopoly position, I find the meddling by conjoined government representatives to be as bad. In the end, Microsoft's success was probably their undoing.

#6 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at Tuesday, October 23, 2007 10:52:38 AM

It's all probably a meaningless gesture anyway. At 10,000E to license the protocols, that will keep out all but the biggest FOSS vendors like IBM or Red Hat. While I haven't seen the licensing contract, MS has always in the past made sure that the terms were fashioned in such a way as to be totally incompatible with GPL2, and for sure GPL3, so that's likely another poison pill for FOSS. I suspect that the Samba team will have to continue reverse-engineering SMB to keep in step.

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