Microsoft abusing monopoly, Symantec says

Computer security solutions firm Symantec accused software giant Microsoft of abusing its monopoly in deciding which security products could run on its upcoming operating system, an Associated Press report said.

 

The report quoted Symantec as saying that Microsoft, which started selling its own security products in May, was deliberately withholding information needed to develop products that worked on Windows Vista.

 

"Microsoft is using their dominant position to regulate what security can be provided on their system and how that security is provided," Rowan Trollope, Symantec's VP for consumer engineering, was quoted as saying. "Microsoft has regulated what choices are there: 'You're going to have our stuff no matter what.'"

 

Although Symantec had not filed a formal complaint, the security company said it was going public with the concerns to pressure Microsoft to release software development kits that would allow rival products to communicate with Vista's new security features, including a dashboard designed to help customers easily see what protection programs were switched on, the report said.

 

European antitrust regulators had warned Microsoft not to shut out rivals in the security software market as it built more security into Vista. The EU and Microsoft were still involved in a long battle over a 2004 EU ruling that found the software company guilty of abusing its monopoly to break into new markets, the report said.