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By Joe Wilcox, 22 November 2002 09:30

NEWS The Justice Department and Microsoft yesterday picked two members of a three-person technical committee that will be responsible for enforcing the software giant's antitrust settlement. In a motion filed with US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the Justice Department and nine states - Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin - requested Harry Saal be appointed to the committee. Microsoft requested Franklin Fite's appointment to the oversight body. In a four-page memorandum accompanying the request, the Justice Department made its case for why Kollar-Kotelly should appoint both men to the technical committee. Saal "was founder and chief executive officer of Network General - now Network Associates - which was the first company dedicated to network diagnostics", the Justice Department memorandum stated. Saal, who holds a doctorate in physics from Columbia University, also has taught computer science courses. Fite, who has a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, is a former Microsoft employee. Fite was director of the Windows CE operating system from 1992 to 2000, according to the memorandum. If Kollar-Kotelly approves the appointments, Fite and Saal would pick the third member of the committee. Legal experts saw nothing overtly wrong with Microsoft choosing a former employee. "It's not as unusual as you would think," said Rich Gray, a Menlo Park-based attorney closely watching the Microsoft case. "If you take arbitration panels as an example, it's quite common for each party to choose a member." In fact, Gray said, the arbitration model in some ways makes sense given that enforcement would be of a settlement agreed to by parties sitting on opposite sides of the table. "It's not unusual for parties to pick arbitrators that are favourable to their position," Gray said. "What Microsoft has done is not in my view objectionable." Joe Wilcox writes for CNET News.com.