Lovely post in Good Morning Silicon Valley…

At a court hearing to review Microsoft’s progress in meeting the sanctions imposed in a 2002 antitrust settlement, a U.S. District Court judge upbraided the company for handing some of its partners a contract that would have forced them to stop bundling rival music software with their MP3 players (see “Sorry, just an old chunk of monopolist boilerplate we had on a save string”). Microsoft maintains the contract was a gaffe, a proposal drafted by low-level business person who did not understand the company’s obligations under the antitrust settlement, which seems something of a stretch to me. “This maybe indicates a chink in the compliance process,” District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said. “This should not be happening at this point in the decree. I realize people make mistakes, but this should not be happening.”

Old habits die hard…