Microsoft in breach of US antitrust deal

THE US Justice Department said that software giant Microsoft is in breach of the antitrust deal it brokered with the firm two years ago.

The violation concerns the ability of end users to switch off Internet Explorer and plug in the browser of their choice.

But, said the Justice Department, Microsoft has designed software to load IE by default if they click on a shop for music online button built into Windows XP.

But Microsoft, according to the Wall Street Journal today, denies that it has violated the settlement although it did say it would switch off this feature in the next revision of Windows XP, due out this quarter.

Instead, Microsoft claimed it was making the change for business reasons, the newspaper claimed. µ