9.20.2004

SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. is expanding a program to give government organizations access to some of its tightly guarded software blueprints amid growing competition from rivals who make such source code freely available.

Beginning Monday, Microsoft will offer more than 60 governments and international organizations the option of viewing the proprietary source code for the latest version of its ubiquitous Office software, including the Outlook e-mail program, Microsoft Word and Excel spreadsheet application.

The company already gives the same government groups the opportunity to view the source code for its dominant Windows operating system.

About 30 of them, including Russia, China, Norway and the United Kingdom, have agreed to sign the free license, said Jason Matusow, a director with Microsoft's "shared source" program.

The United States has viewed Windows source code before but is not participating in this program now, he said.


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