FARM-TO-CONSUMER LEGAL DEFENSE FUND et al v. SCHAFER et al

Filing 834

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FARM-TO-CONSUMER LEGAL DEFENSE FUND et al v. SCHAFER et al Doc. 834 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Defendant. Civil Action No. 98-1232 (CKK) Next Court Deadline: August 30, 2006 Joint Status Report AMENDED SUPPLEMENTAL STATUS REPORT ON MICROSOFT'S COMPLIANCE WITH THE FINAL JUDGMENTS Defendant Microsoft hereby files its Supplemental Status Report on its Compliance with the Final Judgments, pursuant to the joint proposal by Microsoft and the Plaintiffs, and approved by the Court at the Status Conference on November 18, 2005, that Microsoft file monthly reports detailing the status of its parser development project and its cooperation with the Technical Committee's ("TC") prototype implementation and validation projects.1 As agreed upon by the parties, this Supplemental Status Report will be divided into three areas. First, Microsoft will provide an update regarding its parser development efforts, including whether the project is proceeding on pace with the schedule outlined in the November 18, 2005 Supplemental Joint Status Report. Second, Microsoft will report on its efforts in support of the TC's ongoing prototyping and validation projects. Third, Microsoft will update the Court on its progress in revising the technical documentation.2 1 2 The TC as referenced in this report is meant to include Craig Hunt, the California Group's technical expert. As discussed in the last Joint Status Report, Microsoft and the Plaintiffs have agreed, subject to the Court's approval, to extend selected provisions of the Final Judgments. As Plaintiffs indicated during the last status conference, Plaintiffs are preparing the necessary papers regarding this extension. Dockets.Justia.com I. MICROSOFT'S PARSER DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS Microsoft's parser development and delivery efforts remain on schedule. On June 29, 2006, Microsoft shipped the final version of Cluster Three parsers and Network Monitor ("Netmon") to the licensees and the TC. Microsoft remains on schedule to deliver the final set of Cluster Four parsers by the end of July 2006. In accordance with the parser delivery schedule, Microsoft now has successfully delivered pre-release versions of the Netmon application and the pre-release versions of Cluster One, Cluster Two, Cluster Three, and Cluster Four parsers. In addition, Microsoft has successfully delivered, on schedule, the final versions of Cluster One, Cluster Two, and Cluster Three parsers. Based on its work to date, the Netmon team expects that the final version of Cluster Four parsers also will be delivered on time, according to the schedule below:3 Release Date February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 Pre-Released Protocols 21 23 19 19 (21) - Final Protocols 21 23 19 19 (21) The final version of the Cluster Four parsers will complete Microsoft's scheduled deliveries under the parser development project. However, as noted in the June Supplemental Status Report, following delivery of the Cluster Four parsers at the end of July, Microsoft will continue to deliver newly identified parsers and improved versions of Netmon as part of As noted in previous reports, the table has been clarified to indicate the number of "protocols" being released rather than the number of "parsers," as more than one parser (in some instances) is required to parse a protocol. 3 2 quarterly maintenance releases throughout the remainder of 2006 and through 2007. The parser development and Netmon development teams have approximately 40 members working at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington and its facilities in China. II. MICROSOFT'S COOPERATION WITH THE TC'S PROJECTS As described in previous status reports, Microsoft and the TC worked together earlier in the year to install test equipment in certain Microsoft laboratories located in Redmond and India in support of the TC's data collection efforts. These efforts resulted in tests conducted in March in five Redmond test labs to capture network traffic generated in those labs. In July, Microsoft reconfigured its test software in one of those labs to ensure that the test equipment previously installed by the TC would capture additional network traffic that had not been captured in previous test passes. Data were captured during multiple test passes in July, and the TC currently is evaluating the captured data. In addition, Microsoft delivered the final round of technical documentation containing changes to the XML markup to the TC on July 5, 2006 and as noted in the schedule below. Target Date End of January End of February End of March End of April End of May End of June Microsoft Deliverable 10% of MCPP protocols 25% of MCPP protocols 40% of MCPP protocols 60% of MCPP protocols 80% of MCPP protocols 100% of MCPP protocols and 100% of the royalty-free documents Date Delivered February 1, 2006 February 28, 2006 March 14, 2006 May 1, 2006 May 31, 2006 July 5, 2006 Going forward, Microsoft will continue to revise and improve this documentation, including incorporating feedback from the TC. Microsoft has committed that certain additional XML markups submitted by the TC will be completed by the end of August. Currently, nine individuals work full-time on the XML markup. 3 III. A. STATUS OF TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION ISSUES Microsoft's Progress in Modifying the Technical Documentation Since the previous Monthly Status Report, Microsoft has worked closely with the TC to establish an overarching specification to govern the way in which the technical documentation will be rewritten. Specifically, Microsoft and the TC have continued their efforts to complete three distinct specification templates for different categories of protocol documentation to guide Microsoft as it implements the overarching specification. Microsoft has submitted drafts of these specification templates to the TC and has since received the TC's feedback. Microsoft and the TC have reached a provisional agreement on the templates, subject to sample testing as described below. Specifically, Microsoft and the TC have established a process to validate promptly the effectiveness of the specification templates. This process involves Microsoft rewriting sample portions of the documentation in accordance with the draft templates, thereby allowing the TC and Microsoft to identify and make any necessary changes prior to finalizing the templates. Microsoft and the TC are working together to identify representative sample documentation that can be rewritten to test the specification templates, and by July 25, 2006 Microsoft will provide the TC with a schedule pursuant to which the sample documents will be delivered. Microsoft also is working with the TC to establish a project work plan for all of the protocols. Microsoft expects to submit a proposed work plan to the TC by August 20, subject to receipt from the TC of feedback from licensees regarding the protocols that should be prioritized in that work plan. Based on that plan, Microsoft will rewrite the technical documentation in accordance with the specification templates. Microsoft also will continue to assist the TC in its efforts to test the documentation and will facilitate TC oversight of Microsoft's methods for testing and validating the revised documentation. Microsoft will update the Court regarding these endeavors. In addition, the TC and Microsoft have agreed that once Microsoft delivers a copy of rewritten documentation for a particular protocol in accordance with the agreed upon template, the TC will suspend issue reporting on the existing documentation for that protocol, 4 and use the provided documentation for their implementation efforts. In addition, the TC will review the newly revised documentation and provide an issues report. After the issues in the report have been addressed, the updated documentation will be delivered to the TC and the formal issue identification will begin against the rewritten documentation. As noted in the last Monthly Status Report, Microsoft has begun the process of rewriting the documentation for the protocols that the EC has required to be made available. The rewrite is based on specifications to which Microsoft and the Monitoring Trustee for the EC have agreed. As of July 9, 2006, Microsoft has produced documentation for 44 protocols to the Monitoring Trustee. Representatives of the EC have indicated to Microsoft, and stated publicly, that Microsoft has done an "extremely good job" with respect to this recently revised documentation. Given the overlap with the Microsoft Communication Protocol Program ("MCPP") protocols, the rewritten documentation for all of these protocols has been shared with the TC (most of these 44 protocols also are included in the MCPP). B. Status of Existing Technical Documentation Issues (TDIs)4 As the technical documentation is being rewritten, the TC will continue to identify issues in the existing technical documentation of protocols for which they have not yet received rewritten documentation. The current status of TDIs in the existing documentation is as follows: 4 Previously referred to in these reports as "bugs," Microsoft is adopting the TC's terminology of "Technical Documentation Issues (TDIs)" to refer to issues identified in the technical documents. 5 As of 5/31/2006 60-Day TDIs Submitted by the TC Submitted this period Closed this period Outstanding Other TDIs Submitted by the TC Submitted this period Closed this period Outstanding TC Subtotal Outstanding TDIs Identified by Microsoft Identified this period Closed this period Outstanding Total Outstanding Period Ended 6/30/2006 60 2 2 60 459 519 136 55 540 600 158 147 130 730 119 638 C. Documentation Team Staffing As discussed at the last Joint Status Conference, Robert Muglia, the Senior Vice President for Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, continues to manage the documentation effort along with additional senior product engineering team managers. Altogether, approximately 245 Microsoft employees and contingent staff are involved in work on the MCPP technical documentation. Given the substantial overlap between the MCPP and the WSPP, as described above, all of these 245 individuals devote their efforts to work that relates to both programs or that is exclusive to the MCPP. Of these, approximately 160 product team engineers and program managers are actively involved in the creation and review of the technical content of the documentation. In addition, there are approximately 29 full-time employees and 29 contingent staff working as technical writers, editors, and production technicians. There also are approximately 27 other technical architects, managers, and employees from the Windows product development organization and the Competitive and Regulatory Affairs team who devote a substantial amount of time and effort to the technical documentation and the MCPP in general. Significant attention and involvement in the technical 6 documentation and the MCPP extend through all levels of the Microsoft organization and draw upon the resources of numerous product engineering, business, technical, and legal groups, as well as company management. Respectfully submitted, /s/ Charles F. Rule CHARLES F. RULE (D.C. Bar No. 370818) Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Suite 800 Washington, DC 20004-2505 (202) 639-7300 ruleri@friedfrank.com STEVE L. HOLLEY RICHARD C. PEPPERMAN II Sullivan & Cromwell LLP 125 Broad Street New York, NY 10004 (212) 558-4000 Counsel for Defendant Microsoft Corporation 7

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