Microsoft Will Not Appeal EU Antitrust Decision
According to the AP (via the Washington Post):
Microsoft Corp. dropped a nearly decade-long legal battle with European regulators Monday, agreeing to key parts of an antitrust ruling that has already led to hundreds of millions in fines.The world’s largest software company will slash the royalty fees it charges rivals for critical interoperability information needed to make programs that work smoothly with Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows. It will broaden access for open source developers that the EU said are now “virtually the only alternative for users.”
Microsoft said it would not appeal a EU Court of First Instance decision on Sept. 17 that turned down its challenge to a 2004 European Commission order three years ago that found it guilty of monopoly abuse.
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The company will now charge a one-time fee of 10,000 euros ($14,310) to any developer _ including those working on open source systems such as Linux _ for “complete and accurate” technical information to help make software compatible with Microsoft’s Windows desktop operating system. It had previously demanded a percentage of future sales.
Developers _ such as IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. _ which sell software based on Linux will pay a worldwide patent fee of 0.4 percent of revenues for Microsoft’s data. Microsoft’s original rate was 5.95 percent.
Microsoft will now charge for only 31 server protocols under patent instead of the 154 originally offered for licensing.
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November 13th, 2007 at 7:32 am
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