News
Microsoft Counterattacks on EC Claims
- By Stuart J. Johnston
- February 15, 2006
Declaring that it has fulfilled both the letter and the spirit of the law,
Microsoft Wednesday denied it is still in violation of European Community fair
trade laws and attacked the EC's Commission for Competition. This comes
-- no surprise -- just as the commission prepares to begin levying massive daily
fines on the company for its non-compliance.
"Microsoft has complied fully with the technical documentation requirements
imposed by a 2004 European Commission decision, and the commission has ignored
critical evidence in its haste to attack the company's compliance,"
Microsoft said in a filing with the commission.
The confrontation had been threatening to boil over for months. Microsoft delivered
technical documentation for various protocols and routines in its Windows server's
code meant to enable competitors integrate their products as closely as the
company's own.
However, a technical monitor who had been selected
to track Microsoft's compliance found the documentation fatally flawed,
a claim that Microsoft denies. (Perhaps ironically, the monitor -- professor
Neil Barrett, a computer scientist and specialist in researching Internet crime
-- was picked from a list submitted by Microsoft.)
In addition, in January, the company offered to license
parts of its source code to competitors, a move that the EC rejected as
still far short of the mark.
"Hundreds of Microsoft employees and contractors have worked for more
than 30,000 hours to create over 12,000 pages of detailed technical documents
that are available for license today. In addition Microsoft has offered to provide
licensees with 500 hours of technical support and has made its source code related
to all the relevant technologies available under a reference license,"
the company's 75-page response filed Wednesday continued.
Microsoft had until Feb. 15 to "fully comply" with the EC's
demands or face fines of up to $2.4 million per day.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.