Supreme Court rejects Microsoft appeal -- "Microsoft had hoped it could avoid facing a definitive remedy judgment as the case enters its final phase in the U.S. District Court of Appeals. Interactive Week reported that the Supreme Court made no comment in rejecting the appeal, which hinged on unprofessional conduct by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who was the original trial judge."

I'd like to believe that any court-imposed remedy would result in true behaviour changes within Microsoft, but I have as much faith in that as I do in the tooth fairy.

Microsoft has been here before (remember 1995?) and exhibits a strong tendency to exploit every possible loophole or interpretation of court orders, generally disregarding the spirit of such orders (of course, anything open to such broad interpretation is perhaps poorly crafted language deserving of such exploitation).