'Profound' effect seen from Microsoft's EU compliance

Changes Microsoft will make to its business practices to comply with the 2004 European Commission antitrust ruling will "profoundly affect the software industry," European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said Monday.

For three and a half years Microsoft dragged its feet and used every legal avenue available to delay complying with the 2004 antitrust ruling. But after its appeal of the ruling to Europe's second highest court failed last month, the company decided to cooperate.

"At the time the Court of First Instance issued its judgment in September, Microsoft committed to taking any further steps necessary to achieve full compliance with the Commission's decision. We have undertaken a constructive discussion with the Commission and have now agreed on those additional steps," Microsoft said in a statement Monday.

Open-source software developers will be given access to the interoperability protocols inside Windows that Microsoft was ordered to reveal. Until recently the software giant had steadfastly refused to allow that. The protocols will be available for a fraction of the license fee Microsoft intended to charge and they will be valid worldwide, the Commission said Monday.

These concessions were agreed to between Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Kroes in a recent meeting at a restaurant near Kroes' home town of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The final details were agreed to in a transatlantic phone call Monday morning Brussels time, Sunday evening in Redmond, Washington, from where Ballmer made the call.

Kroes was visibly delighted at Microsoft's decision to respect the Commission's authority. "I hope we can close this dark chapter in our relationship," she told journalists at a news conference at the Commission's headquarters in Brussels.

However, she also made clear that while Microsoft's latest efforts substantially respect its obligations under the 2004 ruling, other points of conflict could occur.

"New issues may arise," she warned, pointing to "a couple of other cases on our desks" concerning the company.

One of those cases was sparked by a complaint from the trade group ECIS (European Committee for Interoperable Systems), whose members include IBM, Oracle, and Red Hat. The Commission declined to comment on other cases.

Besides complying with the 2004 ruling, Microsoft also said Monday that it wouldn't appeal last month's defeat at the Court of First Instance, ending the legal uncertainty that continued to face software and hardware developers long after the 2004 ruling.

While doubts remained about the validity of the Commission's 2004 antitrust ruling, the computer industry was unable to plan future product development with full confidence. Now they know, for example, that open-source software developers will be able to compete for a share of the market for workgroup server operating systems -- the computers that run networks of PCs.