Microsoft will be scrutinised over anti trust ruling for 2 years

The government of the United States has announced that it will continue to scrutinise Microsoft, regarding the company’s perceived compliance, with the terms of the antitrust case; the scrutiny will last for a minimum of two more years.

Court appointed supervisors will study Microsoft’s compliance, with regard to the antitrust ruling until at least November 2009, Colleen Kollar Kotelly the federal judge overseeing the case, announced on Tuesday.

Ten states that include New York and California had requested that the court continue the compliance investigation through to 2012.

Judge Kotelly wrote in her seventy eight page ruling that the decision has been made mainly because of Microsoft’s multiple delays in making available technical documents are available to licensees of software, as stipulated by the courts, in particular documents relating to communications protocols.

This court-ordered information would make it much easier for software manufacturing company’s to integrate new products to work with Microsoft’s operating systems.
The court ruling was a landmark antitrust case in the US, back in 2002, and was centered around Microsoft’s involvement with computer manufacturers, and how Microsoft’s software integrates, with other software manufacturers products.

The judge also stated: “The Court’s extension should not be viewed as a sanction against Microsoft; to the contrary, the Court commends Microsoft for its willingness to cooperate with the Plaintiffs in this action and in United States v. Microsoft in negotiating solutions to issues as they have arisen throughout the past five years,”

Even so, with more than five years having passed since this ruling, communications protocols have still not been made available to the licensees in what the judge referred to as: ” a certifiably complete, accurate, and useable form,”