Microsoft on Thursday said that it will be implementing fairly broad changes to “increase the openness of its products.” Focusing on interoperability, this includes releasing thousands of pages of confidential API and protocol information for the most popular Microsoft products that were previously only available to select partners that paid a royalty and licensing fee.

Microsoft said it has four new principles of interoperability for the company:

1. Ensure open connections – Release confidential information regarding API and communication protocols for free with no royalty or licensing fees.
2. Promote data portability
3. Ensure support to industry standards
4. Open engagement with industry and the open source world

Today Microsoft has already released over 30,000 pages of documents on the updated Interoperability web site that previously required a trade secret agreement and licensing fees to view.

In the weeks and months to come Microsoft says developers should expect to see thousands of pages of more information to be released.

At the end of the call Microsoft made it clear that they are not giving away full access to their technology to everyone.  Patented Microsoft technologies can only be used for non-commercial purposes.  In other words a Microsoft competitor cannot just take the information posted, make a product from it and sell it.  On the other hand this will help open source developers greatly that give their products away for free.

Read the full Press Release