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Microsoft-DOJ Joint Status Report June 17, 2008

By Pamela Jones et al.

I thought you might like to see the Microsoft-Department of Justice Joint Status Report on Microsoft's Compliance with the Final Judgments, as entered in New York, et. al. v. Microsoft, CA No. 98-1233 (CKK), and in United States v. Microsoft, CA No. 98-1232, dated June 17, 2008. And I'd like to point out a couple of things.

This is an interim report, meaning it is only about recent activities. To read the whole story, go here and read at least the last six-month report from back in February. The November 2006 joint report is also part of the picture, in that Microsoft said it had thrown some 260 employees into the task of coming up with suitable documentation. But if you read them all, each joint report, one by one, you'll get the full effect and I predict you'll surely laugh.

It appears from that record that no matter what Microsoft tries or how diligently they work at it or how many employees they assign to this noble task of providing interoperability documentation, it just can't be done. Microsoft is like Sisyphus of old, working every day with all its might to get that boulder to the top of the hill, only to see it fall back down again, throughout eternity. Of course, you might point out that his troubles are a myth. Microsoft's are real. You think? You might also recall the API issue that surfaced in the Comes v. Microsoft litigation.

The big picture, to me, is this: Microsoft is *still* not in full compliance with its obligations to provide documentation. That was the issue the DOJ raised two full years ago, and I was teasing Microsoft about it then. Two years later, it's nowhere near as funny. The difficulties resulted in a new plan and with the court deciding to extend oversight for two more years.

But here we are, with the same problem, and, worse, Microsoft has been changing protocols without notice to the technical committee working on compliance in this matter, the Justice Department tells us in this report, despite last year promising not to do that *any more*.

If the same misconduct continues forever and a day, with nothing but promises that for one reason or another are never kept, then what?

No. Really. Then what?

Full post as published by Groklaw on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).