FSFE: "Microsoft abuses the good will of Ms. Kroes" - "European Commission is about to enter legal house-to-house fighting!"

"The grammar of human language, the railway track width and the radio frequency of the telephony system have something in common", Georg Greve, president of Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) says: "These conventions are supposed to make co-operation and interaction between human beings and technical equipment possible. Conventions can never be 'inventions'!"

In software, this does not seem to be so obvious to everyone: The European Commission published a press release yesterday regarding new proposals from Microsoft in the pending antitrust suit in which FSF Europe is participating as a third party, also representing the Samba Project.

According to this release, Microsoft wants to ban software developers from publishing Free Software on the basis of the interface information requested. This information is needed for Windows and GNU/Linux-based computers to interoperate in a company network.

"The proposal specifically precludes the information from being used in a Free Software implementation, such as the Samba workgroup server software. As Samba is the only remaining major competitor of Microsoft in this market, the Microsoft proposal translates to: Of course we will give you the specifications - unless you happen to be a serious competitor of ours, that is," explains Greve. "The European Court decided in December 2004 that Microsoft is to publish this information immediately. This proposal, if accepted, will effectively revert the court decision for the most serious competitor of Microsoft in this market."

Regarding publication of the specifications, the commission concludes "This should be possible for the protocols that do not embody innovations."

"By accepting the notion that some protocols may be considered innovation, the European Commission opened a pandora's box of legal house-to-house fighting: Microsoft will declare all the protocols as innovative and will defend them for as long as they can. Its would-be competitors and the Commission on the other hand will never be able to compete with Microsoft's army of several hundreds lawyers", Greve explains in a press release of FSFE.

He concludes: "We therefore recommend to not be misled by the incorrect notion of applying the label of inventions to mere conventions -- and decide about the new fine. It is very clear to us that Microsoft is trying to drag its feet as long as they can. This way they are abusing the good will of Ms. Kroes at the expense of European citizens and the economy."

"We are keeping our engagement to ensure our best support to the Commission in this litigation, even under these circumstances and without any real achievement on the implementation of the measures. However, I am still confident that our views will prevail, as I have been personally reassured that the Commission takes our position in very high regard" closes Carlo Piana, who is representing the FSFE towards the European Court.

About the Free Software Foundation Europe:

The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) is a charitable non-governmental organisation dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the Freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition- allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people Freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSFE. The FSFE was founded in 2001 as the European sister organisation of the Free Software Foundation in the United States.

Further information: http://www.fsfeurope.org