BRUSSELS, Belgium – Under threat of daily fines by European Union antitrust regulators, Microsoft Corp. agreed on Wednesday to let competitors examine some of the blueprints to its flagship Windows operating system.
Microsoft said it would offer commercial rivals access to a “pretty significant” chunk of the source code governing communications between servers. The code is from its Windows work-group server and its desktop operating systems.
Responding to a 2004 EU antitrust ruling, Microsoft in December offered rivals thousands of pages of documentation and free technical support on the communications protocols for its software for running servers, the machines powering Web sites and other Internet services.
But an independent monitor nominated by Microsoft in December called the documents “totally unfit for its intended purpose.” The European Commission then threatened to fine Microsoft up to $2.36 million a day, retroactive to Dec. 15, saying the software giant was proving intransigent about sharing data with competitors.
Although Microsoft insists that what it provided was adequate, the company said it was releasing the source code to address any lingering regulatory concerns.
“The source code is the ultimate documentation,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief counsel. “It should have the answer to any questions that remain.”
He described the announcement as a “bold stroke” by Microsoft.
The European Commission said it would study Microsoft’s offer carefully once it had received the full details, adding that it looked forward to receiving by the Feb. 15 deadline Microsoft’s reply to the charge sheet it sent in December.
The technical information is important for competitors to make their software compatible with Windows servers.
Microsoft had previously offered competitors specifications that essentially described the code – similar to providing a recipe for a cake rather than the actual cake – said Dave Heiner, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel. The new offer will provide people with a “reference license” for the actual source code, meaning that competitors can view it but can’t copy it.
Software developers will have to pay an unspecified amount for the right to inspect the source code, and will be prohibited from publicly disseminating the information. And Microsoft won’t make the entire Windows source code available – only the portions dealing with communications between servers.
Several countries, including Brazil, China, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, have been actively moving toward open-source alternatives such as Linux, and Microsoft has been under increased pressure to make its proprietary code available for inspection.
Microsoft has launched a number of efforts to give governments and certain private groups access to some source code. Microsoft said it is now extending this for the first time to more than 20 companies that have already signed up to get documentation and technical support from Microsoft under an EU program.
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