Sun Microsystems Inc. said on Thursday it will join rivals Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. in developing a technical standard to make sure Web services transactions are secure. Sun made the decision to join them on the WS-Security Web Services specification after getting assurances from them that they would not charge other companies to license any technology associated with the specification, said Bill Smith, director of Liberty Alliance technology for Sun. Microsoft, IBM and VeriSign Inc. first announced the WS-Security specification in April, but hadn't announced exactly how they were planning to standardize it. Microsoft has been criticized in the past for pushing proprietary technology that does not work with products from other vendors. That prompted Sun to spearhead an alternative Web services effort, dubbed Liberty Alliance, to compete with Microsoft's.
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