By silicon.com, 29 January 2004 16:20
NEWS 29.01.99: Microsoft has been ordered to hand over a key internal document to the US Department of Justice (DoJ) prosecution team.
Government lawyers say the email and its spreadsheet attachment prove that Internet Explorer can be regarded as a product in its own right and can survive independently of Windows.
They say the email - written by Microsoft engineer David D'Souza - points out areas of shared computer code between the browser and the operating system. That knowledge makes it possible for Microsoft to separate the two elements, according to the DoJ.
29.01.04: Even back in 1999 there was the idea that the Microsoft DoJ case could become a bit of a long-running saga.
To this day it is still rumbling on in the EU - though this week came suggestions that the case in Europe is nearing resolution. But then we've heard that before.
The case had more false dawns than anybody could count and even then the resolution was bogged down in appeals and inter-state legal wrangling.
Somewhere along the line the Microsoft trial became one of the longest running legal cases of all time... which sounds like another way of saying one of the most frustrating and tiresome.
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