End of an Era: Microsoft Antitrust Oversight Ends

PCWorld: For eight and a half years, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has provided oversight as part of an antitrust case settlement agreement between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Microsoft. Although the agreement had twice been extended in the past, it expires today.

The original case concerned Microsoft's exclusion of middleware vendors from the Windows operating system. "The final judgment ... prevented Microsoft from continuing the type of exclusionary behavior that led to the original lawsuit," the DOJ said. "Microsoft no longer dominates the computer industry as it did when the complaint was filed in 1998. Nearly every desktop middleware market, from Web browsers to media players to instant messaging software, is more competitive today than it was when the final judgment was entered."