States proposed settlement The 9 rebel states rejecting the DoJ abdication have drawn up their own settlement proposal, requiring non-bundled Windows versions, restrictions on Microsoft middleware, open-sourcing IE, and several other monopoly-abuse busting provisions. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is not impressed.

Given that Microsoft will never concede to this settlement and the DoJ is uninterested in the Law (or competition in the software industry), I'm not sure what the states are hoping for. Perhaps the plan is to force a renegotiated, and taking a hard position now will lead to a less useless settlement ultimately.