In a letter to the commissioners written yesterday, the project asks them to widen the scope of their enquiries to include the Xbox.

The games console, the project claims, is made and sold at a loss, cross-subsidised from the money made from the monopoly Microsoft is alleged to have in the operating systems realm.

Further, claims the project, the Xbox is a standard PC, but Microsoft has added mechanisms so that only software approved by it can run on the machine.

This, claims the project, constitutes a "protected market" for for Microsoft only - the 100,000 members of the project can only make other software work by adding extra circuitry, that is to say "modchips", to allow the code to be executed.

The group further says it has written to Microsoft three times asking for its cooperation to allow Xbox Linux to run on unmodified consoles, but has received no replies whatever.

The group claims that Microsoft is using the DMCA in the United States against people who supply Xbox modchips. meaning end users won't be able to fit modchips, despite the fact that Xbox Linux is GPLd.

The group says that when the EUCD (European Union Copyright Directive) is ratified in Germany and the UK, Microsoft may use similar techniques to prevent the use of the Xbox for similar purposes.

The letter adds that the commissioners examine the "Microsoft only" Xbox to "ensure that there can be no independent competition in Operating Systems or Application programs on this PC platform". µ