Microsoft's "top lawyer said on Wednesday that the US software giant would offer licences for some of its source codes in a bid to comply with antitrust requirements set by the European Commission," reports Reuters.
"We will also license the Windows source code itself," Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith told a news conference. He added he did not know what percentage of the company's source codes would be licensed.
Smith was responding to EU complaints that "Microsoft had failed to offer enough documentation for rivals to use the protocols and threatened to fine it up to 2 million euros a day". Its response is that, in Smith's words: "The source code is the best documentation."
Comment: From Microsoft's press release, it looks as though it's only the communications protocols, and it's not free. Under the Microsoft Work Group Server Protocol Program (WSPP). Microsoft says:
This Program makes available, under license, the communications protocols that are implemented in Windows Server Operating Systems and that are used by a Windows Work Group Server to deliver file and print services and group and user administration services (including the Windows Domain Controller Services, Active Directory services, and Group Policy services) to Windows Work Group Networks.
