Tuesday, June 10, 2008

EU pushes open-source standard as 'smart business'

By Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) _ The EU's top antitrust official called Tuesday on member governments to use open-source software, an apparent jab at Microsoft Corp.'s proprietary technology.

"No citizen or company should be forced or encouraged to choose a closed technology over an open one, through a government having made that choice first," European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said at a conference organized by OpenForum Europe, a nonprofit group that advocates open standards.

Choosing technology formats that can be used by different vendors -- often without paying a fee -- is "a very smart business decision," Kroes said.

She said the European Commission would do its part when it picks software standards for its own use, saying "it must not rely on one vendor, it must not accept closed standards and it must refuse to become locked into a particular technology."

Her comments appeared to target Microsoft -- currently under EU investigation for a second time for possible antitrust violations. The company shunned an existing open format for archiving word processing documents backed by IBM and open source developers in favor of its own open version, Office Open XML, or OOXML.

Despite a chorus of complaints, OOXML was approved in April as an international standard. That paved the way for OOXML to be picked up by the IT departments of governments and large corporations -- although the approval is on hold while protests are resolved.

Critics of OOXML claim it locks out competitors, giving Microsoft customers no choice but to keep buying Microsoft programs forever.

"We need to be aware of the long-term costs of lock-in: you are often locked-in to subsequent generations of that technology," she said. "There can also be spillover effects where you get locked in to other products and services provided by that vendor."

Kroes said an industry should not rush to set standards that all rivals needed to follow. And companies that hold key patents should be clear about the royalties they would charge if their patent becomes part of a standard, she said.