DoJ Questions Microsoft's Compliance

[phoebe]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and the 16 states that reached the November 2002 anti-trust settlement agreement with Microsoft, said last week "numerous concerns" still exist with Microsoft's compliance efforts.

In the first status report to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who oversaw the settlement agreement, the primary concern of the plaintiffs is Microsoft's post-settlement efforts at setting licensing and royalty rates for allowing competitors access to its communications protocols.

snip

The plaintiffs now claim they may have to seek a court order to force Microsoft to lease the technical information in a "reasonable and non-discriminatory manner." The DoJ and the states also complain of Microsoft's slowness in complying with the licensing settlement terms.

Under those terms, Microsoft was required to implement reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms for the MCPP within 90 days of the final settlement. The plaintiffs argue that Microsoft has not complied with those terms.

http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/2231891

Good article here..
http://www.pcworld.com/dart_house/pcw/pcw_houseads/PopUnder/smartcertifywindow3.htm

[pw]

1. When DoJ is complaining about compliance

You know it's bad.

[govegan]

2. This story broke July 4 in the Seattle-PI

At any rate, this is the most interesting quote from the P-I article:

"It's not a surprise that it's not working," said Norman Hawker, a Western Michigan University business professor and research fellow at the American Antitrust Institute, which opposed the antitrust settlement. "The states and the federal government were warned in voluminous comments on the settlement that these were the kinds of problems that would result. They're reaping what they sowed."

The bushista DOJ is so clearly pro-M$, that I seriously doubt any meaningful pursuit of actual compliance with the so-watered-down-as-to-be-virtually-meaningless legal decision, anyway.

Here is a link to the P-I article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/129487_msftcompliance04.html.