Judge Considers DoJ Antitrust Settlement

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has revised its proposed antitrust settlement with Microsoft, and a judge started hearings to determine whether the settlement is in the public interest. Meanwhile, the states that did not sign the settlement continued to press for harsher restrictions and deposed several top Microsoft executives.

Minor Changes to Settlement

The revised settlement, released Feb. 27, is not substantially different from the settlement signed in Nov. 2001. (For details about that settlement, see “Effects of the Antitrust Settlement” on page 13 of the Jan. 2002 Update.) Most of the revisions are minor changes to definitions that were criticized as being too loose. The only significant change was the removal of a passage in the settlement that could have required third parties (OEMs, ISVs, and others) whose software ships with Windows to cross-license their intellectual property to Microsoft if Microsoft needed this license to comply. Some parties, such as Sony, worried that this provision could have been used inappropriately.