Decompiling the Software Directive, the Microsoft CFI Case and the i2010 Strategy: How to Reverse Engineer an International Interoperability Regime

Abstract

This article analyzes the judgment of the Court of First Instance in Microsoft Corp v Commission of the European Communities, not as a competition law decision but as an important ruling on interoperability. In so doing, this article aims to explain how and why interoperability is not an isolated policy on compatible software in the Software Directive, but is an a priori standard that intersects with a wide array of laws and policies relating to information technology. It is argued that the multiple interfaces that interoperability has with various aspects of the information society constitutes a distinct interoperability regime in Europe. The article concludes with a proposal to use the European interoperability regime as a model for an international law on interoperability.

Keywords: software, reverse engineering, microsoft, interoperability, european commission, international, technology