A federal judge has approved last year's proposed anti-trust settlement between the federal government and Microsoft, which does not dramatically change the way the company does business.
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The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (available here) is a blow to nine states and the District of Columbia, which had sought stiffer penalties, including a requirement that Microsoft open up its proprietary software code to competitors.
The "remedy" ruling is in effect for five years unless the court chooses to extend it, and orders Microsoft not to retaliate against computer makers who offer competing software products with the PCs they sell. Microsoft must also offer to license intellectual property rights to computer makers before the final versions of Windows are released.
The full opinion runs more than 300 pages, but a 14-page final judgment lays out the remedies, and Kollar-Kotelly also released an executive summary that synthesizes the key points in the complex case.
"The Court will hold Microsoft's directors, particularly those who testified before this Court, responsible for implementing each provision of this remedial decree," she wrote. "Let it not be said of Microsoft that 'a prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise,' for this Court will exercise its full panoply of powers to ensure that the letter and spirit of this remedial decree are carried out."
The company is prohibited from retaliating against computer makers or independent software makers that consider "developing, distributing, promoting, using, selling or licensing any software that competes with Microsoft Platform Software or any product or service that distributes or promotes any Non-Microsoft Middleware," the judge said in the 14-page order.
Such middleware products include software for browsing the Web, for instant messaging and for playing music and video files, as well as other products. Specifically, Microsoft's middleware products include Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger, as well as Outlook Express and its Java virtual machine.
Microsoft is further prohibited from retaliating against companies that ship PCs with both the Windows operation system (OS) and non-Microsoft OSes, or PCs that boot with more than one OS.
