U.S.-Microsoft antitrust deal to get temporary extension
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Procedural move would give judge more time to decide whether it's necessary to impose on Redmond a lengthier watchdog period, as recently advocated by a number of state prosecutors.
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The U.S. Department of Justice said it will not seek to extend the restrictions placed on Microsoft&#39;s business practices following its antitrust settlement with the U.S. government in 2002.Many of the restrictions are due to expire Nov. 12, and last week several&#160;U.S. states filed motions&#160;in favor of extending them for a further five years. Four of those states -- New York, Maryland, Louisiana and Florida -- had previously said they opposed an extension.The DOJ had also opposed the extension, and on Friday it made it clear that it would not be making a turnabout like the four U.S. states.&quot;The United States will not file a motion to extend its Final Judgment as it does not believe that the standard for such an extension has been met,&quot; the DOJ said in a court filing with the U.S. District Court, District of Columbia.The restrictions were part of the 2002 &quot;consent decree&quot; that settled the U.S. government&#39;s case against Microsoft. They prohibit Microsoft from retaliating against PC makers that install its competitors&#39; software, or licensing its software to them on unequal terms.Another requirement -- that Microsoft license its APIs (application programming interfaces) to let rival products interoperate with Windows -- has already been extended for two years.The DOJ didn&#39;t explain its decision Friday. In August it said it felt the&#160;judgment had been successful&#160;in preventing Microsoft from continuing its exclusionary behavior.The&#160;states who favor an extension&#160;disagree. They say operating systems haven&#39;t evolved as quickly as people thought they would in 2002, and that Microsoft could still use the dominance of Internet Explorer to choke competitors in the emerging Web 2.0 world.A status hearing that will likely address extending the restrictions is scheduled for Nov. 6 with District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.The other states pushing for an extension are California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and the District of Columbia.Separately, last month the&#160;DOJ raised hackles in Europe&#160;by criticizing the European Union&#39;s decision to reject Microsoft&#39;s appeal of its antitrust decision there.&#160;
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SEATTLE/NEW YORK  - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O said  on Monday said it will pay $536 million to its smaller rival  Novell Inc. NOVL.O to settle an antitrust suit and resolved a  10-year dispute with a computer trade group.
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Microsoft Corp., state regulators and the Department of Justice (DOJ) will get more time to argue whether the antitrust settlement against the company should be extended until 2012.
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(InfoWorld) - The latest status report on Microsoft Corp.'s compliance with an antitrust settlement in the U.S. has cleared the company of a separate accusation of not complying with orders to disclose information to make its products more interoperable. An expert witness in a class-action suit filed in Iowa, Comes v. Microsoft, testified that the company had not documented APIs (application programming interfaces) as required by the 2002 settlement with the Justice Department and states. The plaintiffs from the 2002 settlement met with the expert witness in the Iowa case and examined material, concluding that "there is no evidence that Microsoft has not fully disclosed the APIs." The conclusion was tucked away in the report, published on Tuesday, by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which monitors Microsoft's compliance with the settlement. Microsoft reached a settlement in February in the Comes case, filed in Polk County District Court, after plaintiffs argued the company overcharged them for software. In April, a judge gave preliminary approval to a settlement that calls for Microsoft to pay up to US$179.95 million to individual users and businesses that bought Microsoft software between May 18, 1994, and June 30, 2006. The case is due for a final review on Aug. 31. If approved, eligible Iowans will be able to receive $16 for OSes; $29 for Office, $25 for Excel and $10 for Word. Individual users will get cash, while volume buyers will get vouchers for products from Microsoft, its competitors and others. Microsoft estimates the cost of Iowa settlement, as well as settlements reached with Arkansas and Wisconsin in March, plus an outstanding case in Mississippi, could cost the company between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, according to an April 26 filing with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. Â
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By Jessica Mintz  SEATTLE  --  Google Inc. is pressing for an extension to U.S. Justice Department oversight of Microsoft Corp.'s business practices, most of which is set to expire in November, according to a court filing Monday.
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WASHINGTON - Six states, including Massachusetts, sought a five-year extension of an antitrust court decree imposed on Microsoft Corp. , arguing that continued judicial supervision is needed to prevent the world's largest software company from crushing challenges to its Windows operating system monopoly.
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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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Microsoft is expected to hear next month whether antitrust penalties imposed by the European Commission will become effective immediately, or whether they will be suspended for possibly four to five years.
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The National Health Service (NHS) has extended a software licensing deal with Microsoft for nine years - three times longer than its current agreement.
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Latest chapter of antitrust case has U.S. government and software giant requesting an extension on 2002 settlement.
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Several U.S. states are requesting a five-year&#160;extension&#160;of the&#160;antitrust judgment against Microsoft&#160;to ensure the company&#39;s continued compliance, according to a Tuesday court filing.
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Extends terms of anti-trust decree to late 2009 Microsoft has failed in its bid to prevent the US government poking its nose into the software giant's business dealings, after a federal judge ruled yesterday to extend an anti-competitive decree by two years.â¦
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Chipmaker Intel  has been  granted a further short extension to respond to antitrust  charges leveled by the European Commission, an Intel spokesman  said on Friday.
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Microsoft announced yesterday that it had reached a $536 million antitrust settlement with Novell and an agreement with a computer industry trade association that has long fought
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft's Windows Vista OS doesn't pose antitrust issues so far, according to the latest status report on Microsoft's compliance with the U.S. antitrust settlement. The company has addressed all of the bugs identified relating to how third-party middleware software interacts with Vista, according to the report, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Microsoft has increased its cooperation with the court's technical committee in several ways to help ensure that middleware vendors have their software ready for Vista before the OS ships, the report said. The document defines middleware as software programs such as instant messaging programs, media players, e-mail clients, and Internet browsers. Around 30 vendors are working with regulators and Microsoft on how their software works with Vista, the report said. The U.S. government and states that were a party to the antitrust suit against Microsoft have conducted "extensive testing" of interim builds of Vista and Internet Explorer 7 to ensure compliance with the November 2002 antitrust settlement, the report said. As part of that settlement, Microsoft agreed to license communication protocols to IT vendors interested in developing server software that works smoothly with its Windows operating system. After complaints, Microsoft is rewriting some of the technical documentation for its Microsoft Communications Protocol Program (MCPP). The status report said Microsoft has made the new documentation easier to understand, but the company needs to stay on schedule for delivering further documents. Microsoft has until November 2009 to provide the information. The European Commission has also beenÂ scrutinizing Vista, following its 2004 antitrust ruling against Microsoft. So far, the Commission has taken no action against Vista. Microsoft has warned that if regulatory interference delays Vista's European launch, it couldÂ hurt Europe's economy. Microsoft plans to release Vista to business customers on Nov. 30. In 2004, the CommissionÂ fined Microsoft â¬497 millionÂ ($613 million at the time) for abusing its monopoly in the desktop OS market, ordered it to release a version of Windows XP without Windows Media Player software, and mandated it to license and document protocols used by its server products. Microsoft is appealing the decision before the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
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A federal judge ruled on Tuesday to  extend the U.S. government's antitrust oversight of Microsoft  Corp  for two more years, but stopped short of granting  a five-year extension sought by states accusing the company of  continuing monopolistic behavior.