Microsoft ruffles anti-trust feathers with IE-only documents

By Steve Malone

Posted on 11 Oct 2004 at 11:26

The MHT file format 'significantly limits the practical usability' of the relevant documents, claims the US Government and the seventeen states who were part of the final settlement.

Microsoft, which has been forced to publish details of its software as part of its antitrust settlement, is providing the information in a form which can only be read by Internet Explorer, according to Associated Press.

The US Government and the seventeen states who were part of the final settlement have complained that the MHT file format 'significantly limits the practical usability' of the published documents as it doesn't support sufficiently useful search technologies.

As part of the anti-trust settlement, Microsoft had to provide details of its software to rival companies, in order to allow them to build products that can seamlessly work with Microsoft software.

The complaints were part of the regular legal monitoring of the workings of the settlement. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has set a date of October 19 to hear the dispute. Meanwhile, Microsoft says it is working to solve the issue within 60 days.

Redmond says that it has provided the files in the MHT format in order to safeguard the information from those who had not licensed the documents. Associated Press reports that the company lawyers said that MHT provided 'the best available combination of navigational and usability features, familiar viewer interface, ability to handle very large document files and security'.

Microsoft says that companies were not being 'forced' to use the Internet Explorer browser as the MHT file system could be read by any supporting browser. The company admitted, however, that no other rival browser did support MHT at the moment.