Microsoft To Put APIs On Settlement Table

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March 31, 1999 (12:00 AM EST)

By Darryl K. Taft,

Microsoft has expressed a willingness to put the Windows APIs on the table for discussion as part of the antitrust settlement negotiations, according to sources and written reports.

The software giant began talks Tuesday with the U.S. Departmentof Justice and 19 states on settling the Justice Department's antitrust suit.

The Seattle Times reported Tuesday afternoon that Microsoft, in a document forwarded to the government listing topics for discussion, said it was willing to discuss its process for developing and making available the APIs critical to applications developers.

An opening up of the API process could gain industry support, as several Microsoft competitors have alleged Microsoft withholds key APIs from companies either in retaliation or to hamper a competitor's progress.

Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash., has steadfastly denied these claims. Real or not, some independent software vendors said they believe the software giant takes care of its own developers long before they release code to third parties.

A source close to the government was suspicious of Microsoft's proposal to put APIs up for discussion: "I'm skeptical. The mere definition of what's an API is an issue."

At a recent news conference of the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), Jonathan Zuck, president of ACT, said, "The industry thrives on two things among others, intellectual-property protection and platform standards. Any settlement deal that represents an erosion of either of these would not be supported by ACT or, for the matter, the majority of the industry. We believe Microsoft owes it to the industry to walk away from the table rather than concede on these points."

On Wednesday morning, Microsoft and representatives from the Justice Department and the states are slated to meet in court with U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson for a status hearing to discuss scheduling and other issues related to completing the trial, should the parties fail to reach a settlement.

The trial is scheduled to resume no earlier than April 12, but sources said the judge was now presiding over a criminal trial that may run through April, putting off a resumption of the Microsoft trial until some time in May.

Microsoft delivered an initial settlement proposal to federal and state regulators last week. The states promptly discounted the proposal as not going far enough. In that document, Microsoft offered to relax some of its contractual requirements on ISPs and OEMs.

However, a proposal gaining popularity with government regulators is one that would force Microsoft to auction off the Windows source code to the top three bidders, thus enabling other companies to distribute Windows and breaking the so-called Microsoft monopoly.

Officially, Microsoft and the government would not comment on Tuesday's settlement negotiations.