[lug] US DOJ and MS try to sweep large public rebuke under rug

[Neal McBurnett]

Re:  http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f9900/9946.pdf
 and http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/07/1816225

There were 30,000 comments on the antitrust settlement, mostly against
it. The justice dept asks for 30 more days to evaluate and summarize
and then publish on Feb 27th.

But this really is a travesty: The DOJ and MS then propose only 2
business days for the rest of the workd to see it before the last
hearing on March 4th, to last only one day with no outside parties
allowed comment, not even the many dissenting states.

Will the govt servers even be up to it?

So much for respecting the public interest. This process seeks to
sweep the whole thing under the rug before the press can even read the
comments....

I hope the judge sees this desperation bid as a reflection of how
inappropriate the actions of the new Ashcroft justice department are,
and finds that the whole settlement is entirely contrary to the public
interest.

Neal McBurnett <neal at bcn.boulder.co.us>
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/
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