From: Stephen D. Williams (sdw@lig.net)
Date: Wed Jun 07 2000 - 14:53:33 PDT
From: http://usvms.gpo.gov/ms-final2.html
This is a cute solution to determining how much a 'free' portion of the OS is
worth. Finally bloat is costing MS something. Note the definitions.
For a non-lawyer I've read a lot of legal documents and contracts and I repeat
my impression of earlier documents of this court: This is extremely succinct
and well written yet comprehensive. One of my first rental contracts was 25
pages and here the most lucrative company in the world is broken up in 390
lines of text.
Excerpts:
g. Restriction on Binding Middleware Products to Operating System Products. Microsoft shall not, in any Operating System Product
distributed six or more months after the effective date of this Final Judgment, Bind any Middleware Product to a Windows Operating
System unless:
i. Microsoft also offers an otherwise identical version of that Operating System Product in which all means of End-User
Access to that Middleware Product can readily be removed (a) by OEMs as part of standard OEM preinstallation kits and (b)
by end users using add-remove utilities readily accessible in the initial boot process and from the Windows desktop; and
ii. when an OEM removes End-User Access to a Middleware Product from any Personal Computer on which Windows is
preinstalled, the royalty paid by that OEM for that copy of Windows is reduced in an amount not less than the product of the
otherwise applicable royalty and the ratio of the number of amount in bytes of binary code of (a) the Middleware Product as
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
distributed separately from a Windows Operating System Product to (b) the applicable version of Windows.
Interesting definitions:
b. "Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)" means the interfaces, service provider interfaces, and protocols that enable a
hardware device or an application, Middleware, or server Operating System to obtain services from (or provide services in response to
requests from) Platform Software in a Personal Computer and to use, benefit from, and rely on the resources, facilities, and capabilities
of such Platform Software.
c. "Applications Business" means all businesses carried on by Microsoft Corporation on the effective date of this Final Judgment
except the Operating Systems Business. Applications Business includes but is not limited to the development, licensing, promotion, and
support of client and server applications and Middleware (e.g., Office, BackOffice, Internet Information Server, SQL Server, etc.),
Internet Explorer, Mobile Explorer and other web browsers, Streaming Audio and Video client and server software, transaction server
software, SNA server software, indexing server software, XML servers and parsers, Microsoft Management Server, Java virtual
machines, Frontpage Express (and other web authoring tools), Outlook Express (and other e-mail clients), Media player, voice
recognition software, Net Meeting (and other collaboration software), developer tools, hardware, MSN, MSNBC, Slate, Expedia, and
all investments owned by Microsoft in partners or joint venturers, or in ISVs, IHVs, OEMs or other distributors, developers, and
promoters of Microsoft products, or in other information technology or communications businesses.
q. "Middleware" means software that operates, directly or through other software, between an Operating System and another type of
software (such as an application, a server Operating System, or a database management system) by offering services via APIs or
Communications Interfaces to such other software, and could, if ported to or interoperable with multiple Operating Systems, enable
software products written for that Middleware to be run on multiple Operating System Products. Examples of Middleware within the
meaning of this Final Judgment include Internet browsers, e-mail client software, multimedia viewing software, Office, and the Java
Virtual Machine. Examples of software that are not Middleware within the meaning of this Final Judgment are disk compression and
memory management.
r. "Middleware Product" means
i. Internet browsers, e-mail client software, multimedia viewing software, instant messaging software, and voice recognition
software, or
ii. software distributed by Microsoft that -
(1) is, or has in the applicable preceding year been, distributed separately from an Operating System Product in the
retail channel or through Internet access providers, Internet content providers, ISVs or OEMs, and
(2) provides functionality similar to that provided by Middleware offered by a competitor to Microsoft.
u. "Operating System" means the software that controls the allocation and usage of hardware resources (such as memory, central
processing unit time, disk space, and peripheral devices) of a computer, providing a "platform" by exposing APIs that applications use
to "call upon" the Operating System's underlying software routines in order to perform functions.
v. "Operating System Product" means an Operating System and additional software shipped with the Operating System, whether or
not such additional software is marketed for a positive price. An Operating System Product includes Operating System Product
upgrades that may be distributed separately from the Operating System Product.
w. "Operating Systems Business" means the development, licensing, promotion, and support of Operating System Products for
computing devices including but not limited to (i) Personal Computers, (ii) other computers based on Intel x86 or competitive
microprocessors, such as servers, (iii) handheld devices such as personal digital assistants and cellular telephones, and (iv) television
set-top boxes.
x. "Personal Computer" means any computer configured so that its primary purpose is to be used by one person at a time, that uses a
video display and keyboard (whether or not the video display and keyboard are actually included), and that contains an Intel x86,
successor, or competitive microprocessor, and computers that are commercial substitutes for such computers.
aa. "Platform Software" means an Operating System or Middleware or a combination of an Operating System and Middleware.
dd. "Technical Information" means all information regarding the identification and means of using APIs and Communications
Interfaces that competent software developers require to make their products running on any computer interoperate effectively with
Microsoft Platform Software running on a Personal Computer. Technical information includes but is not limited to reference
implementations, communications protocols, file formats, data formats, syntaxes and grammars, data structure definitions and layouts,
error codes, memory allocation and deallocation conventions, threading and synchronization conventions, functional specifications and
descriptions, algorithms for data translation or reformatting (including compression/decompression algorithms and
encryption/decryption algorithms), registry settings, and field contents.
ee. "Timely Manner": disclosure of APIs, Technical Information and Communications Interfaces in a timely manner means, at a
minimum, publication on a web site accessible by ISVs, IHVs, and OEMs at the earliest of the time that such APIs, Technical
Information, or Communications Interfaces are (1) disclosed to Microsoft's applications developers, (2) used by Microsoft's own
Platform Software developers in software released by Microsoft in alpha, beta, release candidate, final or other form, (3) disclosed to
any third party, or (4) within 90 days of a final release of a Windows Operating System Product, no less than 5 days after a material
change is made between the most recent beta or release candidate version and the final release.
ff. "Windows Operating System Product" means software code (including source code and binary code, and any other form in which
Microsoft distributes its Windows Operating Systems for Personal Computers) of Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000
Professional, and their successors, including the Windows Operating Systems for Personal Computers codenamed "Millennium,"
"Whistler," and "Blackcomb," and their successors.
--
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sdw@insta.com Stephen D. Williams Senior Consultant/Architect http://sdw.st
43392 Wayside Cir,Ashburn,VA 20147-4622 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax Jan2000
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