EC's response to Microsoft: insufficient technical documentation

Microsoft's response to EC's December last year request, regarding technical documentation about how Windows can be made interoperable, was not accepted. European Commission released a statement yesterday evening, stating it looks forward to Microsoft's actual response.

The EC stated it has not received the full details from Microsoft, which means that they still - as all we are - waiting to see how much of the Windows source code will be revealed, strictly for "reference license".

The statement goes on to say: "The Commission is looking forward to receiving, no later than 15th February 2006, Microsoft's reply to the Statement of Objections sent by the Commission on 21st December 2005. The Commission sent the Statement of Objections because of Microsoft's failure to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation to allow non-Microsoft workgroup servers to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers, despite its obligation to do so under the terms of the Commission's March 2004 decision that Microsoft was abusing its dominant market position."

In the last part of the message, the European Commission state that in the end they will determine whether Microsoft has fulfilled accurately their directive. If we look carefully, the language used leaves way for further speculations, in Microsoft's attempt to keep their "clear" image.