Microsoft will license source code for the Windows Server technologies at issue in the antitrust fight with the European Union to "put technical compliance issues at rest," the company's head counsel said Wednesday.

"We are putting our most valuable intellectual property on the table so we can put technical compliance issues to rest and move forward with a serious discussion about the substance of this case," said Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, in a statement from Brussels.

Microsoft's move is in reaction to a December 2004 filing by the European Commission (EC) charging that the Redmond, Wash.-based developer had failed to properly document the inner workings of Windows Server for rivals so that they could create server applications that worked as well as Microsoft's own.

In December, the EC, which oversees the 2004 antitrust ruling, told Microsoft it would begin levying a 2 million euro ($2.45 million) per day fine if the company didn't better document selected Windows Server communication protocols. Tuesday, Microsoft was given an extension until Feb. 15 to answer those charges.

Wednesday, however, the company switched strategies.

"We have now come to the conclusion that the only way to be certain of satisfying the Commission's demands is to go beyond the 2004 Decision and offer a license to the source code of the Windows server operating system," said Smith. "The Windows source code is the ultimate documentation."

Not so fast, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst with Directions On Microsoft, a Kirkland, Wash.-based research firm. "Source code is typically cryptic and dense, but unless you know what you're doing, it's seldom useful for duplicating functionality. It's most useful for debugging."

Microsoft didn't spell out exactly which portions of the Windows Server source code it would license, nor detail the licensing terms. "It will be similar to the licensing programs in the U.S.," said Tom Brookes, a Microsoft spokesman based in Belgium. How similar, Brookes couldn't say.

The software company is already licensing protocols, and some source code, for its desktop operating systems because of the 2002 U.S. antitrust settlement, but federal and state officials have repeatedly taken Microsoft to the woodhouse, most recently Tuesday when the Department of Justice blasted the company for its slow pace in providing documentation.