Media Contact: Free Software Foundation Bradley M. Kuhn
<<A HREF=”mailto:pr@gnu.org”>pr@gnu.org>
Phone: +1-617-542-5942
FSF Files Statement on Microsoft Judgment under Tunney Act
Washington, DC, USA – Tuesday, January, 29, 2002 – Eben Moglen,
board member and general legal counsel to the Free Software
Foundation, yesterday filed a response to the Proposed Revised
Final Judgment in United States vs. Microsoft. The FSF seeks to
remove verbiage added by Microsoft that we believe would eliminate
the value of the settlement by preventing Free Software systems
from competing effectively against Windows products.
Moglen reiterated today: “The language of the Proposed Judgment
should be amended to require Microsoft to release timely and
accurate API information to all parties seeking to interoperate
programs with Microsoft Windows and applications written to work
with Microsoft Windows.”
The Proposed Judgment allows Microsoft to specifically block
such interoperation through two specific methods. First, under the
Proposed Judgment, Microsoft can keep API information out of the
hands of Free Software developers through the imposition of royalty
requirements. Large groups of cooperating volunteers are both
logistically and financially unable to pay such royalties for
access to APIs. Royalty charges for Microsoft API access would slow
to a halt Windows interoperability work by their most viable
competitor, the Free Software GNU/Linux operating system. Free
Software developers have by the nature of their development model
always given unfettered access to their APIs, and we ask that
Microsoft be required to do the same.
Second, the Proposed Judgment includes broad language concerning
the disclosure of communications protocols. This provision is so
indefinite that Microsoft will likely argue that all APIs and
communications protocols connected with the security and
authentication aspects of electronic commerce can be kept secret.
Industry standard security practices currently demand that all such
protocols be publicly known and documented. Under this Judgment,
Microsoft would be permitted to keep these private from both Free
Software and the public relying on them for their privacy and
security.
The full FSF response to the Proposed Revised Final Judgment is
available at http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/ms-doj-tunney.html.
About GNU/Linux:
GNU/Linux is the integrated combination of the GNU operating
system with the kernel, Linux, written by Linus Torvalds in
1991.
Some people call the GNU/Linux system “Linux”, but this misnomer
leads to confusion (people cannot tell whether you mean the whole
system or the kernel, one part), and spreads an inaccurate picture
of how, when and where the system was developed. Making a
consistent distinction between GNU/Linux, the whole operating
system, and Linux, the kernel, is the best way to clear up the
confusion. See
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html
for more explanation.
About the Free Software Foundation:
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users’ right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development
and use of Free (as in freedom) Software – particularly the GNU
operating system and its GNU/Linux variants – and Free
Documentation for Free Software. The FSF also helps to spread
awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use
of software. Their web site, located at http://www.fsf.org, is an important source
of information about GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston,
MA, USA.
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