States to court: Extend the Microsoft Decree!

Six states sought a five-year extension of an antitrust court decree imposed on Microsoft Corp., arguing that continued judicial supervision is needed to prevent the world's largest software company from crushing challenges to its Windows operating system monopoly.

The group, led by California, told a federal judge in Washington today it will formally ask her to extend most provisions of the 2002 decree that are set to expire on Nov. 12. The decree was negotiated by the Bush administration in 2001 after an appeals court ruled Microsoft had illegally protected its monopoly for Windows, which powers more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers.

The states argued in court papers last month that the settlement has failed to bring competition to the marketplace. Today, they said that once it expires, Microsoft will be free to bar competition from Internet-based software that might threaten Windows and the company's dominant Internet Explorer Web browser.

``Microsoft continues to have a stranglehold on the two products, Windows and IE, that almost all consumers use for accessing these Web services and applications,'' Stephen D. Houck, a lawyer for the states, told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

An extension would ``make sure'' Microsoft can't ``abuse its still considerable market power to undermine'' what it ``considers emerging technologies'' that threaten the monopoly, Houck said. Antitrust consent decrees negotiated by the U.S. Justice Department typically last 10 years, not five, he added.

Microsoft spokesman Jack Evans told reporters it was ``a bit surprising'' that the same states that complained last month the decree was ineffective are now asking for its extension. It is ``premature'' for Microsoft to comment further because the company needs time to review a proposal it only learned about last week, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=akUOJpHiMlKg&refer=home