Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands

Monday, Microsoft sent a letter to European Union regulators accepting most of the Commissions demands to satisfy antitrust concerns, but asked for further dialog on some matters regarding the licensing of its source code. Microsoft has accepted 20 out of the EUs 26 demands and says that it will work as quickly as possible to settle the remaining six.

Microsoft must comply with a 497 million euro judgment made against it nearly one year ago after the European Commission found that it had abused its position in the market to stifle competition. The penalty determined by the EU was for Microsoft to remove Windows Media Player from Windows XP, to allow competitors access to server source code and to provide better interoperability between platforms.

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After haggling with the EU over the name of the WMP-free version of Windows XP and being threatened with fines for not cooperating to the EUs expectations, Microsoft announced last week that the product name will be Windows XP "N."

Other concessions have been to expand the evaluation period for licenses—based upon the US MCPP license—to allow up to eight days over the course over ten business days and to lower evaluation fees. If parties take a license, those fees are credited to their account.

The remaining stumbling block to full compliance is source code licensing.

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