Reserve judgement

I'll reserve judgment at this point. It's not as harsh as I would like, but it doesn't look to be a total sell out either. From the looks of things it will depend heavily on how effectively it is enforced. If all the stuff about middleware disclose and OEM licensing is strictly enforced it could work, but if it's not enforced with an eye to stopping MS from wriggling around the rules it won't mean anything.

The two things I don't like that I see immediately are that it doesn't impose any fines on MS for past transgressions, and that it doesn't require that MS reveal all APIs only "middleware" APIs. If it's strictly enforced the way they define middleware will cover just about all MS applications, but I see that as one place that MS can easily play with terminology.

Jay

After having enough time to read the fine print better I don't think agreement will work.

What I see as the fatal flaw is the restrictions on the power of the Technical Committee, which insures they won't have enough power to do anything. All they will really end up doing is delaying the process of taking MS back to court when they try to maneuver around the rules.

The finding of the Technical Committee can't be used in court against MS nor can they testify, which means that if they do find MS to be doing something wrong they will tell the US Dept of Justice. The DOJ will then have to go to court to get the authority to investigate MS to produce their own evidence of wrong doing, but only after MS has had a long period of time and ample notice to hide the evidence.

The bit about the TC not being able to speak publicly is also very damaging, because it keeps the members of the TC from saying anything if either side tries to avoid their responsibility. Right now, if the TC found that MS was violating the rules but the DOJ didn't want to investigate they couldn't take their complaints to the public. This makes it far to easy for both sides to just quietly sweep the whole thing under the rug.

Finally, the inability of the TC to take any action other then notifying the DOJ prevents them from having any real power to threaten MS into compliance. At the very least, the TC needs to have the power to petition the judge directly for a injunctions to block activities by MS until the DOJ decides on a course of action and the power to petition the judge to fine MS for resisting oversight.

Jay

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