Admit it: when it comes to sheer bang for your antitrust entertainment buck, no other case delivers as consistently as "Redmond Justice." It makes us laugh, it makes us cry, and occasionally it makes us hurl. Well, okay, mostly it just makes us laugh. Whether it's an incredulous giggle at a bizarre bit of testimony or a hearty guffaw at yet another Microsoft slip-up, we're grateful for the joy it brings into our lives and we'll be sorry to see it wind to a close.

See, if you were expecting the show to drag on for another few years due to the glacial progress of our legal system, you might want to make other plans. Sure, in most cases testimony alone could have gone on ad infinitum, but Judge Jackson was clever enough to set hard limits on the number of witnesses each side could call, and he's kept the pace of the trial far more brisk than it could have been. That makes the case more exciting, but it also makes it shorter. And if you were counting on the lengthy appeals process to keep you entertained for the next decade or so, that may not come to pass either. A Sm@rt Reseller article notes that a "rarely used section of the federal antitrust statute may allow the DOJ to circumvent most of the standard process," kicking the appeal into high gear and possibly bringing forth a final judgment from the U.S. Supreme Court as early as late next year. And that'll be the end of it.

On the other hand, we probably don't have to worry about the case ending too soon, either. Our biggest concern has been that Microsoft will finally waver in its stubbornness and agree to a settlement, which would end the show with a sudden and disappointing anticlimax. So we're grateful to faithful viewer Al Barten, who pointed out a Wired article about the Justice Department's antitrust chief Joel Klein. Apparently Mr. Klein is not a fan of accepting settlements when a ruling would set an important precedent. While he didn't mention "Redmond Justice" specifically, it's pretty clear that Klein's going for a real, honest-to-goodness verdict in the case, in hopes of setting a precedent that might be useful against Microsoft (and other potential Microsofts) in the future. So fear not-- it sounds like we can look forward to at least another year of "Redmond Justice" and its special blend of drama and belly-laughs.