New York, Maryland, Louisiana and Florida have joined the “Microsoft oversight” bandwagon. They have submitted their own plea to continue judicial oversight of Microsoft. This after the so-called California Group formally petitioned to extend oversight to 2012 last week. (The California Group is lead by California but also includes Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Massachusetts, the District of Columbia.) This new group of attorneys general likewise urged a federal judge to extend Microsoft’s 2002 antitrust settlement another five years in an effort to stop Microsoft from stomping out emerging Web 2.0 rivals of its Windows operating system. According to a story in Computerworld, the states said:
“Microsoft has the ability — by virtue of IE’s dominance and its resulting control of Web standards — to use the browser as a chokepoint with respect to consumer access to the Internet-centric technologies that currently represent the most promising nascent platform threats to Windows,” the states claimed.
Meanwhile, the DOJ has already weighed in on the matter and opposes the states’ request. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly is expected to rule on the issue on November 6. See also Microsoft in compliance with 2004 ruling, EU says. California group asks for extended court oversight Microsoft abandons appeal of Korean antitrust ruling
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