Microsoft tries to poison Free Software
Dragging its feet as usual, Microsoft has taken the next step in the European monopoly lawsuit. The company has promised to let other people look at its server source code to appease the European Commission, which has already slapped Microsoft with a hefty fine.
So what’s the problem? There are several. For one, noone ever asked Microsoft to do this. Nobody in this case wants their server source code. What is needed to enable competition in the marketplace are the server protocols. What’s the difference? If the source code is the blueprint for the wiring of the Windows server, the protocols are just the design specifications for the plug that goes into it. Microsoft is simply not offering what is has been asked for.
Another problem is that this source code is, in effect, poisonous. Any software developer who looks at this code – which is of course copyrighted by Microsoft – and then goes on to develop something similar to the Windows server, will immediately be sued for copyright infringement. Even if she writes something completely different, simply being sued by Microsoft is enough to destroy a person’s economic existence.
Microsoft is trying to fool the European Commission. FSF Europe, which represents the Samba Team that developes a rival Free Software server, has debunked Microsoft’s claim to compliance, and several international papers have taken note. Let’s hope the Commission does as well. Isn’t it surprising that the world’s biggest software company should have such trouble telling apart source code and protocols?