STATUS QUO AT MICROSOFT. The judge currently responsible for the Microsoft case has accepted, with minor modification, the proposed settlement from a year ago. The attorneys general of nine states were not happy with that settlement, thus this case ought not yet to be viewed as closed. There is a news report here, a statement by Attorney General Ashcroft (key point: "The Final Judgment provides certainty and stability to the vital computer sector of our economy and creates an environment where companies will be encouraged to develop and deploy new middleware technologies with full confidence that their efforts will not be impeded by anticompetitive practices. In fact, Microsoft has already modified its licensing practices to permit computer manufacturers to substitute competing middleware products for those provided as part of its operating system, modified its new XP operating system, and begun to release important interfaces and protocols that will enable third-parties to develop products and services that will interoperate with Windows" here, , and the executive summary of the judge's decision is here.

The original settlement struck me as pretty basic, anybody familiar with the United Shoe Machinery ruling from 1954 will find no surprises, and I see nothing on initial inspection to think anything differently today. After a reading of the executive summary and some surfing, I will have more.