"Redmond Justice" fans, mark your calendars... the Court of Appeals has finally released the schedule for the show's new season. Regular viewers will recall that the Justice Department has been pushing for a quick appeal, hoping to salvage at least some effectiveness from a case that threatens to stretch on so long that any remedies it finally imposes will be irrelevant. In stark contrast, Microsoft has been trying its hardest to stretch the proceedings out until the next ice age-- for precisely the same reason. But it's the U.S. Court of Appeals that has the final say in the matter, and as pointed out by faithful viewer Ken Llewellyn, that historically Microsoft-friendly entity has chosen to split the difference between the two extremes.

According to an article in TechWeb, the following dates are the nights for which you should set your VCRs. First, Microsoft has to file a brief "describing its arguments" by November 27th. The government must do the same by January 12th. Then Microsoft gets to respond to the government's arguments by January 29th, and final briefs from both sides are due on February 9th. These dates are carved in judicial stone; "the court will not entertain motions for extensions of these deadlines." Note that the appellate court also compromised on the two sides' proposed length limits on the briefs-- Microsoft had asked for a whopping 200 pages in which to set forth its arguments, and the court granted it 150.

The real action, of course, isn't all this paperwork being shuffled back and forth (though the briefs are always plenty entertaining in their own right, and they promise to be thick enough to cause serious injury if accidentally dropped on someone), but rather in the courtroom drama itself. Well, start organizing the TV party right now, because "Redmond Justice" heads back to the courtroom at the end of February; "arguments before the seven appellate judges are set for February 26th and 27th." Hopefully we'll get to see some of that old fur a-flyin'. Ah, it'll be just like old times...