The Register is reporting that Microsoft ordered a former contractor to "severely edit his presentation at the last minute" before a presentation to the Seattle Java-XML SIG, ordering the removal of information apparently available elsewhere.

Items removed from the presentation appear to have included "changes to the SOAP spec and the justifications for these; difficulties in developing a Remote Object Proxy Engine (ROPE), which is a set of APIs intended to automate the handling of SOAP communications; and [...] the most recent SOAP spec from IBM."

Coming so soon after the storm over Microsoft's use of Kerberos and its demands that Slashdot remove posts describing (and granting access to) modifications, Microsoft's aggressive posture may raise intellectual property concerns about SOAP, especially as SOAP appears to be a critical component of Microsoft's upcoming Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) architecture.

Related story:

• Microsoft and the 'Gordian Knot' of XML