Originally brought by the US Department of Justice and twenty states, the antitrust action was largely settled in 2002 when Microsoft, the Justice Department and several states signed a judicially approved settlement.
The state of Massachusetts is the only state still pressing for a more stringent agreement, and is currently awaiting a ruling from an appeals court as to whether or not the settlement should be overturned. Commentators think that this is unlikely.
As part of the settlement, Microsoft is monitored for compliance with the agreement, and six-monthly reports are presented to District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly for her consideration. The latest of these has now been published and indicates ongoing concern over Microsoft's compliance.
The main issue revolves around the requirement that Microsoft discloses software code used by Windows, to help rivals make their products interoperable with its dominant operating system.
When it first made the code available, Microsoft did so on terms that Sun Microsystems and others deemed unreasonable. The Justice Department intervened and the terms were eased. However, to date only eleven companies have signed up, and the Report expresses concern that "the current licensing program has thus far fallen short of satisfying fully" the aims of the settlement.
Accordingly Microsoft has agreed to ease its licensing terms still further, and will try to reduce the complexity of the program, increase the scope of the licences and make it easier for "companies to understand the technology they are seeking to license." The report does not rule out the necessity of further changes, if licensees are still reluctant to come forward.
The report follows hard on the heels of an advisory from the Department of Justice that a feature in Windows XP was violating the settlement.
In terms of the settlement Microsoft must make it possible for computer users to make use of non-Microsoft products such as media players or web browsers on its Windows operating system. But, according to the Department, the Windows XP feature "Shop for Music Online" always launches Microsoft's Internet Explorer, even if the user has another browser set as default – and this is in breach of the settlement provisions.
Microsoft has now agreed to remove the browser override contained in the "Shop for Music Online" feature, and this will be available for downloading in February or March.
Microsoft spokeswoman, Stacy Drake McCredy, told SiliconValley.com that
"While we differed in our interpretation of the consent decree, we are pleased that the changes we'll be making also address the government concerns about this feature."
The Status Report is available here