Certain controls linked to the US antitrust ruling against
Microsoft took effect in 2002 and will expire next year. Microsoft
General Counsel Brad Smith announced the '12 tenets' yesterday to
answer questions about what the company will do when it is free of
these conditions.
"In a sense, an operating system alone is a bit like a dinner
table without food or a Broadway stage without any actors," said
Smith, addressing an audience in Washington, DC. "It is the
platform on which other things rest, but it is not the end in and
of itself. We need to fulfil our responsibilities to everyone who
builds on top of our platform if we're to fulfil our
responsibilities to the world at large."
He added: "We've learned that people care not only about what we
do but about how we do it. So, our goal today is to be principled,
transparent and accountable in our design of Windows as we go
forward now and in the future."
Smith said the principles are designed to customers, the
computer industry and regulators alike. "Microsoft is committed to
developing Windows in ways that advance innovation for consumers
and preserve important and robust opportunities for competition,"
he said.
The principles include an undertaking to design Windows –
including the forthcoming Windows Vista – and licence it on
contractual terms so as to make it easy to install non-Microsoft
programs and to configure Windows-based PCs to use non-Microsoft
programs instead of or in addition to Windows features.
Smith acknowledged that the principles do not answer all
questions raised by regulators and courts.
"They can't possibly address all of these questions, and they
don't attempt to, he said. "They don't, for example, address all
the issues in the European Commission's 2004 decision, which, of
course, is being reviewed by the European Court of First Instance,
and with which Microsoft has a continuing legal duty to
comply."
The 12 tenets are broken into 3 principles. They are as
follows:
Principle I: Choice for Computer Manufacturers and
Customers
Microsoft is committed to designing Windows and licensing it on
contractual terms so as to make it easy to install
non-Microsoft® programs and to configure Windows-based
PCs to use non-Microsoft programs instead of or in addition to
Windows features.
What this means:
1. Installation of any software. Computer
manufacturers and customers are free to add any software to PCs
that run Windows. More broadly, every computer manufacturer and
customer is free to install and promote any operating system, any
application, and any Web service on PCs that run Windows.
Ultimately, end users are free to choose which software they prefer
to use.
2. Easy access. Computer manufacturers are free
to add icons, shortcuts and the like to the Windows Start menu and
other places used to access software programs so that customers can
easily find them.
3. Defaults. Microsoft will design Windows so
as to enable computer manufacturers and users to set non-Microsoft
programs to operate by default in key categories, such as Web
browsing and media playback, in lieu of corresponding end-user
functionality in Windows. Computer manufacturers are free to set
these defaults as they please when building new PCs.
4. Exclusive promotion of non-Microsoft
programs. In order to provide competitors with the
opportunity to attain essentially exclusive end-user promotion on
new PCs, computer manufacturers will have the right to remove the
means by which end users access key Windows features, such as
Internet Explorer and Windows Media® Player. The Set
Program Access and Defaults utility developed as part of the U.S.
antitrust ruling makes it easy for users and computer manufacturers
to exercise these options.
5. Business terms. Microsoft will not retaliate
against any computer manufacturer that supports non-Microsoft
software. To provide transparency on this point, Microsoft will
post a standard volume-based price list to a Web site that is
accessible to computer manufacturers, as it has under the U.S.
antitrust ruling. Windows royalties will be determined based on
that price list, without regard to any decisions the computer
manufacturer makes concerning the promotion of non-Microsoft
software. More broadly, Microsoft will offer Windows for license on
standard terms and conditions so that a computer manufacturer knows
that it will be offered the same licensing terms regardless of its
decision to promote or not promote software from competitors.
Microsoft will consider modifications to the standard license terms
to reasonably accommodate computer manufacturers with individual
business-model or operational requests, but these variances will
never be based on the extent to which the computer manufacturer
promotes non-Microsoft software.
Principle II: Opportunities for Developers
Microsoft is committed to designing and licensing Windows (and
all the parts of the Windows platform) on terms that create and
preserve opportunities for application developers and Web site
creators to build innovative products on the Windows platform —
including products that directly compete with Microsoft’s own
products.
What this means:
6. APIs. Microsoft provides the developer
community with a broad range of innovative operating system
services, via documented application programming interfaces (APIs),
for use in developing state-of-the-art applications. The U.S.
antitrust ruling requires that Microsoft disclose all of the
interfaces internal to Windows called by “middleware” within the
operating system, such as the browser, the media player and so
forth. In this way, competitors in these categories will know that
they can plug into Windows to get services in the same way that
these built-in Windows features do. This has worked well, and we
will continue to disclose these interfaces even after the U.S.
antitrust ruling expires. In fact, we will go further, extending
our API commitment to the benefit of all software developers. Going
forward, Microsoft will ensure that all the interfaces within
Windows called by any other Microsoft product, such as the
Microsoft Office system or Windows Live™, will be disclosed for use
by the developer community generally. That means that anything that
Microsoft’s products can do in terms of how they plug into Windows,
competing products will be able to do as well.
7. Internet services. Microsoft is contributing
to innovation in the area of Internet services with services that
we call Windows Live. Microsoft will design Windows Live as a
product that is separate from Windows. Customers will be free to
choose Windows with or without Windows Live.
8. Open Internet access. Microsoft will design
and license Windows so that it does not block access to any lawful
Web site or impose any fee for reaching any non-Microsoft Web site
or using any non-Microsoft Web service.
9. No exclusivity. The U.S. antitrust ruling
generally provides that Microsoft may not enter into contracts that
require any third party to promote Windows or any “middleware” in
Windows on an exclusive basis. We will maintain this practice going
forward, and in fact broaden it to apply to Windows or any part of
Windows, whether or not it would qualify as “middleware” under the
U.S. antitrust ruling. We will apply the concept of “exclusivity”
broadly too, so that our contracts ensure that a third party can
use non-Microsoft software in amounts equal to or greater than its
use of Windows. More generally, we want the developer community to
know that it is free to develop, support and promote products that
compete with any part of Windows. Consistent with the U.S.
antitrust ruling, Microsoft will not retaliate against any third
party for exercising this freedom.
Principle III: Interoperability for Users
Microsoft is committed to meeting customer interoperability
needs and will do so in ways that enable customers to control their
data and exchange information securely and reliably across diverse
computer systems and applications.
What this means:
10. Communications protocols. Microsoft will
make available, on commercially reasonable terms, all of the
communications protocols that it has built into Windows and that
are used to facilitate communication with server versions of
Windows. To facilitate this, Microsoft will document protocols
supported in Windows as part of the product design process. We will
also work closely with firms with particular needs to address
interoperability scenarios that may require licensing of other
protocols.
11. Availability of Microsoft patents.
Microsoft will generally license patents on its operating system
inventions (other than those that differentiate the appearance of
Microsoft’s products) on fair and reasonable terms so long as
licensees respect Microsoft’s intellectual property rights.
12. Standards. Microsoft is committed to
supporting a wide range of industry standards in Windows that
developers can use to build interoperable products. Microsoft is
committed to contributing to industry standard bodies as well as
working to establish standards via ad hoc relationships
with others in the industry.
