The European Commission has reached asettlementwith Microsoft that aims to
open the software company up to greater competition from open
source developers.
Changes agreed by Microsoft today will give open source
suppliers the ability to offer alternatives to Microsoft work group
servers, which are compatible with the Windows desktop operating
system, the commission said.
Under the settlement, Microsoft has agreed to provide
interoperability information, and has significantly reduced the
royalty payments for open source developers of Windows-compatible
work group servers.
The agreement follows a
European Commission decision against Microsoft in 2004 over
anti-competitive practices
Microsoft was fined £346m for infringing EC treaty rules for
using its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems to
leverage the market for work group operating systems.
"It is regrettable that Microsoft has only complied after a
considerable delay, two court decisions, and the imposition of
daily penalty payments," said competition commissioner Neelie
Kroes.
"However, the measures that the commission has insisted upon
will benefit computer users by bringing competition and innovation
back to the server market," he said.
According to the European Commission, Microsoft has a 95% share
of the desktop operating systems market, and in excess of 70% for
work group server operating systems.
"Open source work group server products are virtually the only
alternative for users and are thus the main surviving competitive
constraint on Microsoft," the commission said in a statement.
Microsoft has been offering two types of licences to companies
for interoperability information following the 2004 ruling.
Following today's agreement, it has reduced the royalties
required for its "No Patent" agreement to a flat fee of £7,000 and
changed the terms of the licence to make it compatible with the
open source business model.
The software company has also reduced the revenue charges for
its "patent agreement" to 0.4% of product revenues.
In addition, Microsoft has agreed to publish an irrevocable
pledge not to assert any patents it may have over the
interoperability information against non-commercial open source
software development projects.
Initially Microsoft demanded a royalty rate of 5.95% of revenues
and had refused to make the licence compatible with the open source
business model, the commission said.
The current settlement comes after the commission issued a
statement of objections in March, warning Microsoft over
unreasonable pricing.
The measures will ensure that Microsoft's competitors in the
work group server market, including those following the open source
model, will have access to interoperability information on
reasonable terms, said the European Commission.
The European Commissions 2004 ruling against Microsoft was recently
held up by the European Court of the First Instance.