States seek longer court oversight of Microsoft
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A group of states on Tuesday asked a  federal judge overseeing Microsoft Corp's  antitrust  oversight agreement to extend sections of it to 2012.
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As judgment day in the nine year-long antitrust battle between Microsoft Corp. and the European Commission draws near, neither side in the protracted dispute knows for sure how it will react to the news on the day.
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The federal judge overseeing  Microsoft Corp.&#39;s antitrust compliance said on Tuesday that she  will rely on the Justice Department and state attorneys general  in deciding how to handle Google Inc.&#39;s concerns about  Microsoft&#39;s Vista operating system.
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(InfoWorld) - A group of state plaintiffs in the U.S. Microsoft antitrust case will ask for a five-year extension of a large portion of the 2002 judgment against the company, the group's lawyer said Tuesday. California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia -- known as the "California group" -- want an extension of most of the middleware portions of the judgment, said Stephen Houck, a lawyer for the group. Microsoft still retains a huge lead in the operating system and Web browser markets, he said. "Microsoft continues to have a stranglehold over the two products ... that nearly all consumers use," Houck said during an antitrust compliance hearing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. "Very little has happened in five years ... in those markets." The California group of states -- the larger of two groups of states that sued Microsoft for antitrust violations -- will ask for an extension of all the middleware portions of the antitrust judgement, except for a section that governs the royalties Microsoft can charge PC manufacturers for the Windows operating system. Most of the antitrust judgment was scheduled to expire in November. Microsoft lawyer Rick Rule said the company would need time to respond to Houck's proposal. Microsoft first heard of the plan to ask for an extension on Friday, he said, and the California group plans to file a formal extension request with the court in mid-October. Rule seemed to suggest Microsoft would fight the five-year extension. U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly declined to impose a 10-year judgment in 2002, he said. "We think the picture of the computer industry is much rosier," Rule added. "We think it's clear that the decree has done its job." Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans said the company will respond in more detail after it has seen the extension request. "We're a bit surprised that a few states are now requestingÂ an extension of the consent decree because they indicated just last month that they're not too fond of it," Evans said. In August 2006, Microsoft already agreed to an extension of the section of the judgment requiring it to make its communications protocols available to other software vendors. Microsoft's efforts to fix technical documentation for the protocols have run into several delays. Houck on Tuesday asked Kollar-Kotelly to extend the communications protocol section of the judgment until 2012. The California group does not "have any confidence" Microsoft will continue to improve the communications protocol program without oversight, Houck said. An independent auditor's report just issued questions whether Microsoft has released all the protocols mandated in the judgment, he added. The California group's extension proposal comes afterÂ the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York group of states filed briefs last month saying the antitrust judgment has done its job. "There have been a number of developments in the competitive landscape ... that suggest that the Final Judgments are accomplishing their stated goal of fostering competitive conditions among middleware products, unimpeded by anticompetitive exclusionary obstacles erected by Microsoft," said the report from the DOJ and New York group, which includes five states. But Houck disputed that assessment on Tuesday. At the time of the judgment, a handful of PC vendors were preinstalling a competing Web browser on PCs, he said. Today, no major ones are, he said. In addition, the communications protocol program was supposed to be finished early in the judgment's life, and its delays have kept software vendors from fully using the program, Houck said. "The whole thing ... doesn't have an opportunity to work as the court intended," he said. "It's very clear that the product markets at issue in this case have not moved rapidly at all." Kollar-Kotelly said she would delay final reports on the judgment while she considers the California group's request. Microsoft and the plaintiffs were scheduled to meet with her Nov. 6 to discuss the final reports, but she will now consider the extension request on that date. Before Houck made his request, the judge said she was opposed to extending the judgment without a good reason. It was hard to predict the impact the judgment would have, she added. "The final chapter of the final judgment has not been written," Kollar-Kotelly said. The California group wants Kollar-Kotelly to extend all of section 3 of the judgment except for section 3B, dealing with manufacturer royalties. The extended provision would include: *Â A prohibition against Microsoft retaliating against PC vendors for including competing software on PCs; *Â A prohibition against Microsoft restricting PC vendors from putting competing middleware in the start menu or making them defaults; *Â A requirement that Microsoft give APIs for its middleware to PC vendors and independent software vendors.
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In the second day of a hearing before the European Court of First Instance, Microsoft will today argue that sanctions imposed on the software company following an antitrust ruling by the Commission should be suspended until an appeal of the antitrust
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A federal courtâs oversight of Microsoft has been extended through January to give a judge time to consider a motion to extend that oversight for another five years.
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The federal judge overseeing  Microsoft Corp.'s  antitrust compliance said on Tuesday  that she will rely on the Justice Department and state  attorneys general in deciding how to handle Google Inc.'s   concerns about Microsoft's Vista operating system.
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A group of states asked a federal judge to extend much of the 2002 antitrust judgment against Microsoft, saying the middleware market is still monopolized.
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In a petition before US District Judge Kathleen Kollar-Kotelly, the State of California, along with five other states and the District of Columbia, said they would ask US District Judge Kollar-Kotelly to extend all the provisions of government oversight to 2012, in a status meeting scheduled for today.
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Four states that recently said the U.S. federal judgment in the Microsoft antitrust case has done its job have made an about face, now joining&#160;other states asking for an extension of the judgment.New York, Maryland, Louisiana, and Florida asked the court to extend the term of the judgment for another five years, according to a filing they made with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday. The states join California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia in asking for the extension.As recently as August the states led by New York said the judgment was achieving its goal of fostering competition.Now they&#39;ve changed their tune. &quot;An extension is appropriate to assure that marketplace participants have sufficient opportunity to establish positions to compete against Microsoft, an entrenched monopolist,&quot; they wrote in the filing.Microsoft&#39;s &quot;well-known difficulties&quot; complying with parts of the judgment have hurt the chances for more competition in the market, they wrote. The filing also stated that the pace of technological development of the overall operating system market hasn&#39;t moved as fast as expected when the judgment was written, so that removing oversight of the judgment now would impair the chances of potential competitors.The states suggest that extending the judgment shouldn&#39;t unduly harm Microsoft as the company said in&#160;a case brought by the European Commission&#160;that the settlement in the U.S. hadn&#39;t negatively impacted its incentive to innovate.In response to the filing by the New York group of states, Microsoft reiterated its comments following the filing earlier this week by the California group. &quot;We believe the consent decree has served its purpose,&quot; Jack Evans, a Microsoft spokesman, said in a statement. &quot;Microsoft has worked hard to implement the decree&#39;s requirements and has changed its practices as a result.&quot;
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Scathing words yesterday from the federal judge overseeing Microsoft's compliance with its antitrust decree, accompanied an order that effectively extends the DOJ's oversight period into the next US presidential administration.
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WASHINGTON - A U.S. district court judge on Wednesday praised Microsoft for efforts to improve technical documentation for its communications protocols, but questioned the effect in the marketplace of her final judgment in the U.S. government's antitrust case against the software giant.
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It will be the tech Sector&#39;s most closely watched court ruling since US Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered the breakup of Microsoft Corp.
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SEATTLE -- States pressing for continued scrutiny of Microsoft Corp.'s business practices failed to support their argument with evidence, the software maker said in a court filing Friday.
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A group of states led by California said in a court filing yesterday that ending oversight of Microsoft's business practices in November would not allow enough time to consider the antitrust implications of Windows Vista.
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U.S. states are requesting a five-year extension of the 2002 antitrust judgment against Microsoft.
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This fourth priority&#39;s main focus has been improving or obtaining CRM and ERP software for the past year and a half. A San Francisco judge ordered Microsoft to pay lawyers involved in its $1.