Judge Criticizes MS Settlement Progress

At a court hearing to discuss Microsoft's progress in meeting the sanctions imposed in a 2002 antitrust settlement, a U.S. District Judge reprimanded the company over its recent music software flap. Microsoft was also scolded for not moving fast enough in opening its Windows internals to third parties.

Last week, the government disclosed that Microsoft had considered forcing its partners to stop bundling rival music software with their portable players. The plan was apparently proposed in a draft of marketing strategies, but was dropped after a manufacturer complained.

"This shouldn't be happening," Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was reported as saying in the courtroom, suggesting that in order for this to happen, something must have not been going right with the compliance process. She also demanded an explanation as to why the proposal was written in the first place.

Kotelly in the past has generally had words of praise for Microsoft's work to comply with the settlement, which made Wednesday's comments all the more striking. However, no indication was made that she would take action against the company for the mistake.

Also, Kotelly said that Microsoft needed to begin to move faster to comply with a portion of the settlement that requires the company to make its technical documentation more accurate. The move would help competitors make their software work better on Windows, lawyers for the government claim.

Microsoft told the judge that it "underestimated the difficulty and the time" of the project, however Kotelly said that was "not a good excuse" for the lack of progress on the settlement requirement.