[link|http://www.nando.net/technology/story/216699p-2090981c.html|Oh, did we forget to mention that...]

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON (January 11, 2002 12:20 p.m. EST) - Microsoft may have damaged its antitrust case by failing to reveal to a federal judge that it lobbied lawmakers, legal experts said.

In court filings, the software giant disclosed only contacts with executive branch officials and not Congress. Records of such contacts are required by the 1974 Tunney Act, written to make sure a company settling antitrust charges doesn't get improper favors from government employees.

"It's for the court and the public to decide whether there was improper influence, and not for Microsoft," said Andy Gavil, an antitrust expert at Howard University.

Microsoft said it followed the example of AT&T when it settled the antitrust case that resulted in the breakup of the telephone company.

San Francisco lawyer Dana Hayter, with the firm of Howard Rice, said the language seems clear.

"If you specifically talk about the proposed settlement, that would seem to fall under the requirements of the plain language of the statute," Hayter said.

Both Microsoft and a congressional aide who witnessed the contacts acknowledge Microsoft officials briefed aides of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the settlement just before a December congressional hearing on the case.