By Andy McCue, 1 June 2005 13:05
NEWS Microsoft has met the European Commission (EC) deadline for submitting proposals on how it intends to comply with last year's antitrust ruling.
The EC has already rejected one proposal from Microsoft and threatened to invoke a daily fine of up to $5m on the company if the software giant missed a midnight deadline this week to submit its final remedy.
The initial EC antitrust ruling in March last year ordered Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without Media Player and to disclose source code to rival makers of server software to enable their products to be interoperable with Windows.
The key sticking point is the interoperability remedy and the EC rejected Microsoft's last proposal in March over the high level of royalties Microsoft had proposed.
An EC competition spokeswoman confirmed Microsoft had submitted a new proposal just before midnight on Tuesday this week.
"We have to study it very carefully and that could take a few weeks," she said.
But even if the EC rejects these new proposals it will still be some time before Microsoft faces any financial penalties. The EC spokeswoman said a letter would have to be sent to Microsoft detailing why the proposals had been rejected and giving Microsoft time to reply. The member states and the EC would then also have to be consulted before the fines could be invoked.
A statement issued by Microsoft said: "We have submitted our proposals to the Commission and we await their response."
Comments
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1. anonymous
The organisation for which I work engaged in a bitter legal battle with a large supplier. The supplier's main tactic was time wasting including taking everything to the last hours of any deadline. This was the surest indicator to us that they were guilty.
Microsoft is doing exactly the same. I urge the European Commission not to indulge Microsoft. They DO NOT need every last second to formulate their responses; they have already been planned for the next three years.
Go get em!
2. Simon
On a point of order, the article states "... and to disclose source code to rival makers of server software to enable their products to be interoperable with Windows."
This is not the case, the demands do NOT require Microsoft to reveal ANY source code - though that is how MS are portraying the demand in order to try and gain some sympathy.
The demand is that MS document the protocols used between client and server - so that other parties can implement systems that can talk the same protocols. At present, projects such as Samba (open source SMB server) have to take the Microsoft systems, and watch the exchanges between them to see how the protocols work. Only after they have studied the exchanges and written their own documentation can they start to implement any new features.
All people like the Samba project team want is that MS document the protocols AND USE WHAT THEY DOCUMENTED ! In the past MS have produced documents that state how a protocol works, but software written to those specs doesn't work because the specs are wrong.
At present, MS use complicated, undocumented protocols which they keep changing. Some of the changes are undoubtedly for technical advancement, but the cynic in me can't help thinking that a lot of it is simply to break compatibility with competing products - the "if your network has any non-MS stuff in it then we're going to make sure you have problems with it" approach to competition.