Microsoft moves to comply with DOJ settlement deal

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- Microsoft Corp. today said that it plans to make available previously undisclosed Windows interfaces and protocols to developers and competitors, giving them new ways to achieve interoperability with the Windows client, part of a move to meet the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust settlement terms.
Specifically, Microsoft announced that beginning tomorrow it will offerfor a fee licenses of 113 communications protocols used to interoperate between servers and Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional.
In addition, on Aug. 28 Microsoft will release for free to developers 272 application programming interfaces used by the company's middleware products, such as its instant messaging, media player and e-mail client.
"This put us in a different position from everybody else in the industry, because we are obligated to license some of our most valuable technology to our competitors," said Brad Smith, the company's senior vice president for law and corporate affairs, during a teleconference this morning.
The release, "gives our competitors a new alternative to achieve interoperability between their server operating systems and the Windows client," said Smith.
The company is taking this action to comply with the antitrust settlement it reached in November with the Bush administration and half of the 18 states involved in the landmark case. But that settlement remains in limbo.
U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is still considering whether to accept that settlement -- which was intended to resolve a court decision that Microsoft illegally maintained its Windows monopoly -- or impose a tougher set of restrictions sought by nine states that, along with the District of Columbia, have refused to settle.
A decision by the judge could come at almost anytime.
Microsoft today also said that it has begun to provide uniform licensing terms to the top 20 PC makers and will release by summer's end service packs for Windows XP for Windows XP that include the means for PC makers and end users to add and remove access to certain Windows features. A PC maker, for instance, could install a rival media player and hide access to the Windows version. A Windows 2000 Professional service pack with this update has been released.
Whether the interface disclosures matter to developers remains to be seen. Microsoft officials insisted throughout the antitrust case that the company released enough interfaces to ensure third-party interoperability with Windows, a message Smith reiterated today.
"There already is broad and more than sufficient interoperability between everybody's servers and with the Windows client," he said.
It will be up to competitors, said Smith, to decide whether to enter into new licenses, put teams of engineers to the task of implementing code and update existing products or add new products.
Microsoft officials wouldn't release the pricing range for the communications protocol interfaces, although the company said pricing is intended to be a small percentage of the server's total price. The license could be as little as $5.
Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst at IDC, said pricing will be key. If the royalties are too high, the disclosures will have "very little or no impact."
Moreover, much will depend on how long Microsoft will be willing to commit to the disclosures. If the company releases one version of a product and then quickly moves to another version, "it would just be a way to deplete the energy and engineering resources of a competitor and get them into a position of chasing Microsoft," said Kusnetzky.
Critics were unappeased by the announcement.
Ken Wasch, president of the Software & Information Industry Association in Washington, said the settlement gives Microsoft too much latitude. Microsoft "can avoid the disclosure requirements completely through the sleight of hand in deciding what constitutes part of the operating system," he said.
"We believe that the [DOJ] settlement ... is fatally flawed," Wasch said.