The two parties are hoping to persuade Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to approve the settlement at a hearing next Wednesday. Competitors will be allowed to make representations at the hearing.
Microsoft described the changes as clearing up “misconceptions and misunderstandings” in the original deal; the Justice Department said they were “clarifying modifications.”
The most significant change was that a section of the deal was deleted which critics said unfairly benefitted Microsoft. It provided that third parties were required to grant royalty-free licenses to Microsoft for some of their innovations as a price for getting access to the software code that allowed integration of these products with Windows.
In another change, Microsoft lost some of its scope for keeping middleware, which refers to products like internet browsers, media players and instant messaging, outside the restrictions imposed by the deal.
In two weeks, nine US states will begin arguments for more severe penalties against Microsoft. These states dissented from the Justice Department’s settlement proposal, considering it too lenient on the software giant.
Legal documents from the ongoing cases are available on the company’s site at:
www.microsoft.com/presspass/legalnews.asp
