Microsoft News Tracker

Anne Broache at CNET has the story:

Under fire for a marketing plan that may have improperly favored Windows Media Player, Microsoft on Wednesday told a federal judge that it’s trying hard to avoid any anticompetitive behavior by employees.

At a conference in the same courtroom here last month, the company took heat from U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly amid news that one of its employees had devised a marketing agreement that would have forbidden portable music player makers from bundling anything except Windows Media Player with their devices.
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The plans drew no complaints from Kollar-Kotelly, who said she was happy that the company had listened to her criticism and “pleased at the renewed vigor in compliance efforts.”

Actually, while the marketing agreement was the most exciting part of last month’s hearing, Kollar-Kotelly’s major complaint was about slow progress on the project documenting Microsoft communications protocols. That was also addressed in the status document discussed in court today.

Update (12/1): It looks like everything was cool - Judge compliments Microsoft:

Microsoft Corp. is moving more quickly to develop tools competitors can use to create software that runs smoothly on the Windows operating system, a judge overseeing the 2001 antitrust settlement with the Bush administration said.
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On Jan. 16, it will begin giving the court monthly reports on the progress it’s making. The judge set a Feb. 14 date for the next hearing on the status of the case.