Microsoft is expected to post on its web site "within the next several days" details of a revised process which is expected to be less restrictive, complex and costly than the program the Windows giant rolled out in August last year.

The government required Microsoft to make its server protocols available to competitors as part of a final judgment in its antitrust case so that Microsoft could not leverage its desktop monopoly into unique capabilities for its server products. However, competitors complained the licensing process launched in August was complex, expensive and required competitors to sign a broad non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

The new terms will not require NDAs and will include sample licensing agreements published on Microsoft's web site. It will also "modify aspects of the royalty structure that will open the licensing program up to a wider range of businesses," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said in a statement released Monday (April 21).

Microsoft will also publish brief summaries of each server protocol available for licensing on a public web site.

The Justice Department "will continue to examine the royalties contained in the licenses and will be evaluating this issue in a concentrated way and on a separate track over the next several weeks," according to an advisory on compliance with the November 2002 antitrust final judgment that the department published in a press statement on Monday.

Only three companies have signed the server protocol NDAs and licenses under the existing terms, according to a report in the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday. Microsoft is rolling out a new version of its server operating system, Windows Server 2003, on Thursday (April 24).

By: DocMemory
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