Since the ruling [by the European Court of First Instance], Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer has been in almost daily contact with Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for competition policy.
Following these intensive discussions, Microsoft has agreed to change the way it provides rivals with information that allows them to write programmes that mesh with Windows.
Microsoft will now make information available to open source developers, with licensing terms that allow every recipient of the resulting software to copy, modify and redistribute it in accordance with the open source business model.
In a statement today Ms Kroes said: “The Commission’s 2004 decision set a clear precedent against which Microsoft’s anti-competitive behaviour could be judged.
“Now that Microsoft has agreed to comply with the 2004 decision, the company can no longer use the market power derived from its 95pc share of the PC operating system market and 80pc profit margin to harm consumers by killing competition on any market it wishes.”
Microsoft has agreed to slash its requested royalties for a worldwide licence, including patents from 5.95pc to 0.4pc - less than 7pc of the royalty originally claimed.
The software group has also abandoned its demand for a royalty of 2.98pc of revenues from software developed using licensed information…
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Ghillie Suits » Microsoft caves in to EU regulators
22|Oct|2007 1[…] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptMicrosoft caves in to EU regulators 22 Oct Posted by: John in: Microsoft Telegraph report: … Since the ruling by the European Court of First Instance , Microsoft’s chief executive Steve … policy. Following these intensive discussions, Microsoft has agreed to change the way it provides […]
Derek Shaw
15|Dec|2007 2EU tells open source to start paying MS patent tax
Brussels, 23 October 2007 — EU Commissioner Kroes’ deal with Microsoft creates real dangers to Europe’s growing open source economy, warns the FFII. Using patent licenses that exclude businesses, the software monopolist has turned the EU competition ruling into a victory, and now gets implicit support from the Commission to proceed aggressively against its competitors.
Neelie Kroes European Commissioner for Competition and Microsoft agreed that the royalties payable for the interoperability information will be 10,000 Euros, and that Microsoft can use its EPO software patents to charge 0.4 percent of all the sales of its competitors. The FFII says that these conditions effectively exclude open source competitors and add costs for all who wish to communicate with Microsoft products. This is a new transaction cost for all society, its the opposite of an open Internet.
“We assume that the Commission wanted a paper victory after all this delay,” says Pieter Hintjens, president of FFII. “The guilty party agrees not to appeal, takes the slap on the wrist and promises to behave. And the Commission gets good press. But who pays? Who is the patsy? It is European industry, which increasingly depends on free and open source software.”
Benjamin Henrion, FFII representative in Brussels, agrees that this deal is a big win for Microsoft: “The Commission does not understand how open source works. It naively accepted Redmond’s assurances that they will play fair. It is a sham. They have planned for years to control the open source economy through software patents. This scheme now moves ahead, thanks to the Commission’s haste to make a quick deal.” Henrion concludes, “Kroes has ensured that EPO software patents - which the EU rejected in 2005 - will now strengthen the monopolist’s grip for years to come.”
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