Microsoft under government oversight for extra 18 months
Microsoft has agreed to a Department of Justice request to extend government oversight of its activities for a second time. The firm will remain under supervision until May 12, 2011.
The extension won’t take effect until a court formally hears the request next Wednesday. However, given that Microsoft has agreed to the move, that should be a formality.
Officially the delay is not related to Windows 7. However, the DOJ did note it will need to thoroughly review the relevant documents about the new system; those documents won’t be released until June 30.
The oversight began after a 2002 settlement of antitrust charges against Microsoft. As part of the settlement, Microsoft agreed to release technical information about how Windows works to make sure rival firms can produce compatible applications.
After a first extension, the oversight was set to end in November this year. However, the DOJ says this wouldn’t have given it enough time to make sure that previously discovered “errors” in the documents Microsoft released had been corrected.
The extension could be costly for Microsoft. As part of the settlement, it will be allowed to charge a license fee for providing the documentation, meaning it gets around 0.3 percent of revenue from the resulting applications, but only once the oversight period ends. However, officials may be able to give the go-ahead for the licensing fee once they are satisfied the documentation is up to scratch, even if that’s ahead of the new schedule.
The DOJ’s request also asks the court to give it the power to oversee how easy it is to install rival web browsers and media players, and to set them as the default application. That may play a factor in Microsoft’s decision to make Internet Explorer an optional feature which can be ‘switched off’ in Windows 7.
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