The WS-I, envisioned as a truce broker in the contentious Web services market, has instead been mired in company turf wars since its founding in February. Sun has accused Microsoft and IBM of "political shenanigans" for not giving Sun equal status in the WS-I. And during Microsoft antitrust trial hearings last month, evidence surfaced in written testimony that chairman Bill Gates and other Microsoft executives attempted to steer the direction of the WS-I away from Sun. In a press conference last month, Sun chief executive Scott McNealy said: "I think those two would love to create a duopoly in the marketplace," in reference to IBM, Microsoft and Web services. A behind-the-scenes battle over security standards threatens to further divide the organisation. Sun is quietly working on its own royalty-free specification for Web services security, which could rival a similar set of specifications proposed by IBM, Microsoft and VeriSign, sources told CNET News.com last week. Mike Gilpin, an analyst with Giga Information Group speculated that one reason Sun is planning to create competitive specifications is to put pressure on IBM and Microsoft to allow Sun to join the WS-I as an equal. "One could speculate a reason for doing that is to act as a spoiler and hold out to be allowed to join the WS-I board," Gilpin said. "To give a message that says, 'If you want us to play nice, let us come to the party.'" Sun has also voiced concerns that IBM and Microsoft might charge "tolls" to developers, in the form of royalties on patents, for using existing Web services specifications including the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL) and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI). Sun's Schwartz said on Wednesday that the company likes those standards, however, "we're very worried about the royalties associated with the use of (those standards). We do not believe in taxing people for use of those standards." Neither Microsoft nor IBM have formally stated a desire to charge royalties on the standards, which are in part based on patents held by them. "A lot of this is speculation, but you worry about it," Breya said. Sun wouldn't let that objection stand in the way of joining the WS-I, though, she said. News.com's Stephen Shankland and Mike Ricciuti contributed to this report.
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