THE WALL STREET JOURNAL has seen a confidential document from the European Commission telling Microsoft that offering source code wouldn't be enough to avoid antitrust action. That explains why a representative of the Commission told the BBC earlier this week that Microsoft had decided to hold a press party when it could have popped round the corner and had real discussions. The Wall Street Journal exclusive sight of the memo shows that behind the scenes there is a real war going on. Microsoft faces the prospect of paying €2 million a day in fines if it doesn't comply with the Commission's terms. While publicly Microsoft is maintaining it is doing everything possible to comply, the memo seen by the Journal describes the information and documentation supplied to the Commission as unusable. That's according to expert arbitrator Neil Barrett, appointed by both parties. Microsoft competitors such as IBM, Oracle, Sun and Novell can't make head nor tail of the firm's protocols to access its software. µ The Inq
