[Am-info] Microsoft boasts of antitrust progress (?)

[Gene Gaines]

See ZDnews article at:
http://netscape.com.com/2100-1104-955924.html

Part of article below.

Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com
Sterling, Virginia  USA


Microsoft boasts of antitrust progress

By Joe Wilcox
Special to ZDNet News
August 29, 2002, 11:08 AM PT

Microsoft is seeking to underline the trust in its antitrust
settlement.

Though there was no legal requirement for it to do so, the
software titan on Wednesday issued a progress report on the work
it's been doing to comply with a proposed agreement it reached
last year with the Justice Department and nine states.

In its seven-page filing, Microsoft pointed to several milestones
it had reached in accordance with the consent decree: Tuesday's
release of application programming interfaces, the recent
disclosure of Windows communications protocols, and the
introduction of a new control into Windows 2000 and Windows XP
that will let PC makers keep middleware such as the Internet
Explorer browser off the software desktop.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is reviewing that
agreement and separately is looking at whether to impose stiffer
sanctions against Microsoft, as requested by nine other states and
the District of Columbia, which continued with the litigation.

The timing of the filing could be important for Microsoft, say
legal experts, given that the judge could still reject the
November settlement, which the parties amended in February.
Kollar-Kotelly's decision on the settlement and call for a stiffer
remedy could come at any time.

With the progress report, Microsoft is "trying to persuade
(Kollar-Kotelly) they are trusted allies in the agreement they
have signed onto," said Andy Gavil, an antitrust professor at
Howard University School of Law. The filing "suggests they have an
ongoing credibility gap they have to address--that they have to
persuade the judge they can be trusted and will carry out what
they say they will."

The trust issue is crucial for Microsoft, given credibility
concerns raised by the case's earlier jurist, U.S. District Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson, and the plaintiff states' call for
stiffer sanctions. "It's a question of whether they can be trusted
or whether they need to be before the court occasionally to make
sure they toe the line," said Gavil.


more...