Microsoft antitrust diktat set to run until 2009

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) is seeking to extend the term of its landmark antitrust settlement with Microsoft by two years, blaming Microsoft's slowness in providing technical documentation to rivals.

In a statement released on Friday, the DoJ said it wants to extend certain parts of the final judgment in the case, set to expire in the autumn of 2007, until 2009. It said Microsoft has agreed to the two-year extension of the programme, under which it licenses its Windows communications protocols.

The department made its request as part of its regular status report to US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who is overseeing the case.

Deputy assistant attorney general, J Bruce McDonald, said in the statement: "The Department of Justice is committed to full and vigorous enforcement of the Microsoft final judgment. This extension will ensure that companies interested in licensing the communications protocols receive the benefit of complete and accurate documentation for the full period of time provided by the court's final judgment."

In the past, both the Justice Department and Judge Kollar-Kotelly have expressed concerns over the documentation that Microsoft has provided in its licensing effort. The company has already made several changes to the programme. However, the DoJ said Microsoft has "concluded that a broader 'reset' of its efforts to improve the technical documentation would be more effective and efficient than continuing with the current approach".

At one time, the DoJ and several state attorneys general had sought a break-up of Microsoft in order to prevent it from abusing its Windows monopoly. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson at one point ordered such a move, though his ruling was later reversed on appeal. Ultimately Microsoft settled with the Justice Department, agreeing to far more modest restrictions, including the protocol licensing programme.

More recently, the European Union has ruled against the software maker, also ordering it to share communications methods with rivals. The DoJ said its goal with the new effort is to make the two programmes "as consistent as possible".

At a February hearing, Judge Kollar-Kotelly criticised Microsoft for "foot-dragging" in the protocol licensing effort. In an interim report in April, the DoJ said that of Microsoft's 58 proposed fixes to 71 short-term issues, only five completely resolved the issue in question. Microsoft said at the time that it had tapped additional engineers to try to respond better to the problems.

In the report filed on Friday, the Justice Department said that of the most recent 37 responses from Microsoft, two-thirds appear to resolve the issue. The department said in its section of the jointly filed report: "The trend is encouraging and confirms that Microsoft's recent process is significantly improving the quality of the responses."

But the agency said Microsoft's difficulty in improving the overall issues with its technical documentation "has led plaintiffs to conclude that a new approach is needed".

Microsoft said late on Friday that it was agreeing voluntarily to "document and license the communications protocols in the Windows desktop operating system that are used to interoperate with Windows server OS products".

The software maker said in a statement: "The result of the agreement today, and Microsoft's additional announcements, is that the licensing of these protocols will effectively become an ongoing part of Microsoft's regular product development and business processes."

The department noted that Microsoft has assigned the head of its server and tools business, Bob Muglia, to analyse the open issues relating to the documentation. It said: "Mr Muglia and his team ultimately concluded that the current process of trying to fix issues... one at a time was unlikely, in the foreseeable future, to result in documentation that is satisfactory."

Technical experts hired by state and federal regulators agreed, and the new plan is for Microsoft to rewrite "substantial portions of the documentation".

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com