Speaking of antitrust drama here in the States (Yeah! We are just the segue kings today!), "Redmond Justice" continues to chug along... but, not at all surprisingly, Microsoft wants it chugging at a much slower pace. In fact, "chugging" would be the wrong word altogether; what Microsoft proposes is more like "sipping," or maybe "nursing a single Coke for four hours until the Denny's manager kicks you out on your patoot." After all, the longer the case drags on, the less relevant any potential remedy will eventually be-- which is why everyone in Redmond did a little touchdown dance when the Supreme Court wussed out and kicked the case back the Appeals Court because they felt the case was "too technical" to take right away.

And so, Microsoft's brazenly looking to delay things as long as humanly possible. Get this: according to the New York Times, the company is asking for over five months just to file its documents for the appeal. Furthermore, Gates's lawyerly minions have learned a thing or two from the software engineering department; evidently they seek to slow things down still further with bloatware, seeing as they've requested permission to file a 56,000-word brief. That's four times longer than the usual upper limit, and "half the length of an average book"-- so what, exactly, is "brief" about that? Sounds to us like Microsoft's looking to clog the pipes with as many words as possible.

The reason for the extraordinarily long filing time and the "brief that isn't," according to Microsoft, is because "the scope of the case is monumental." It has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that what kicked off this whole mess over three years ago was the bundling of Internet Explorer in Windows 95, and then Windows 98-- and that under Microsoft's proposed schedule, this whole thing won't get resolved until both those products are long obsolete. On the plus side, despite the fact that the Appeals Court has sided with Microsoft on antitrust issues in the past, it has voiced a preference for a speedy schedule for this case. The Justice Department has until Thursday to submit its own proposed schedule, and Microsoft must respond by the following Tuesday. Shortly after that, the court will set a schedule-- and we'll all see just how Microsoft-friendly it really is. Stay tuned!