The stakes are high because of how much more the states are looking for in a court-imposed remedy vs. the settlement. The settlement largely would place restrictions on Microsoft's business practices, while the litigating states are seeking changes to how Microsoft develops and deploys software. In a December remedy proposal, the litigating states said Microsoft should give away the source code for Internet Explorer, license through auction Office for use on competing operating systems and carry Sun Microsystems' Java in Windows for 10 years. The litigating states also are targeting Microsoft's crown jewel, Windows XP. They want Microsoft to sell a stripped-down version of Windows without the so-called middleware, such as Web browsing, instant messaging and media-playback technologies. Kollar-Kotelly agreed to their request early this month for access to the Windows XP Home, Professional and Embedded source code, which is being reviewed by University of Utah Professor Lee Hollaar. "You can bet Microsoft would like nothing more than to make the states' case go away," Gray said. "But Microsoft's argument just doesn't fly because the Justice Department wasn't the only plaintiff." Gavil agreed that getting the states' claims dismissed would be tough for Microsoft. "If you look at the language of the statute, Microsoft has made a facially plausible argument, but it's not a very sensible one," Gavil said. This is just an obvious bar to the states' lawsuit; why wasn't it raised earlier -- as in May 1998, as soon as the lawsuit was filed? There's an issue of whether it's been waved and an issue of how sensible a reading of the statute it is." Unless Kollar-Kotelly dismisses the litigating states' claims, that portion of the case returns to trial March 11 to determine a remedy. The litigating states initially assembled a "Who's Who" list of Microsoft competitors to testify, including executives from AOL Time Warner, Novell, Palm, RealNetworks, Red Hat and Sun. A Gateway executive also will testify on behalf of the states. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer are tentatively scheduled to testify during the proceeding.
Think it's all over? The antitrust case against Microsoft can still go back the to Court of Appeals, and then there's the European Commission's investigation... See ZDNet UK's DoJ/Microsoft News Section for the latest headlines.
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