Feds to Extend Microsoft Anitrust Ruling

Mojo

And now, for the less imflammatory version:

US Department of Justice, Microsoft agree to extended oversight until 2009, possibly later

5-12-2006 3:24:15 PM, by Ken Fisher

The United States Department of Justice has informed the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that oversight of Microsoft's compliance with the 2002 anbreastrust ruling should be extended by at least two years, through the fall of 2009. Under the terms of the original settlement, the oversight in question would have expired in the fall of 2007.

"The Department of Justice is committed to full and vigorous enforcement of the Microsoft final judgment," said J. Bruce McDonald, Deputy buttistant Attorney General in the Department's Anbreastrust Division. "This extension will ensure that companies interested in licensing the communications protocols receive the benefit of complete and accurate documentation for the full period of time provided by the court's final judgment."

Microsoft has agreed to the elongated term as well as agreeing to a framework which could see that oversight extended possibly into 2012, but only in the event that extended provisions of the settlement have not been met. Such requests would need to be considered by a federal court.

The provisions in question deal primarily with Microsoft's networking (or communications) protocols, which both the US government and the European Union have accused Microsoft of failing to properly and fully document. In this most recent announcement, the DOJ cited concerns over the quality of said documentation while at the same time noting that they were not satisfied with the speed at which Microsoft has complied.

For its part, Microsoft has agreed to the extension, which now much be approved by a judge. According to the DOJ,

"After reviewing its progress in improving the technical documentation, Microsoft concluded that a broader "reset" of its efforts to improve the technical documentation would be more effective and efficient than continuing with the current approach. The government concurs, and therefore Microsoft will rewrite significant portions of the documentation in an effort to substantially improve the overall quality of the documentation. As this project will take time to complete, and since the final judgment otherwise would expire in Fall 2007, the Department informed Microsoft that it would be necessary to request an extension of the term of the final judgment from the court. The Department said in its filing that the request for an extension is not a result of any belief that Microsoft has willfully violated the final judgment."

Furthermore, the company has also agreed that, even if a later extension were denied by a judge, that the company would continue to make it documented materials ultimately available to licensees through 2017.

Sorry, Mojo, but Microsoft already agreed to the extension, agrees with possible extensions through 2012, and agrees to document the networking protocols in question up through 2017, and the DOJ itself says, "The Department said in its filing that the request for an extension is not a result of any belief that Microsoft has willfully violated the final judgment." Your lame attempt to use this to paint Microsoft as "evil" is quite pathetic.