It appears to me as an outright admission of wrong-doing!

Doesn't matter, they've been convicted. Admission here isn't of wrong-doing, its of acceptance that they did get convicted. (And try and make some points for "conceeding".

They will still have to suffer penalties for the damage their licensing schemes have caused, won't they?!

We'll see.

The main issue is this should give the guys who want to hammer M$ more nails. They're betting it takes the hammer away.

"But look, they're being nice, they've stopped kicking the dead guy"

Addison