Microsoft has undertaken to ease licence conditions for rivals
wanting access to its server software code following Justice
Department concerns that the software giant was not meeting terms
of last year's antitrust settlement.
It follows complaints from Sun Microsystems and others that the
original licence terms offered by Microsoft were so unreasonable
that only three companies have obtained licenses to date.
Specifically, the licenses relate to technology used by
Microsoft server operating system products to interoperate with its
Windows operating system products.
According to the Justice Deaprtment, Microsoft has agreed "to
substantially revise the terms of the licenses that it initially
offered on August 6, 2002".
It added that Micosoft will also drop requirements for third
parties to enter into a non-disclosure agreement covering the terms
of the licenses and that the revised licenses will be available for
review on Microsoft's web site within a few days.
Over the next several weeks, the Justice Department will examine
the royalties contained in the licenses.
