Microsoft's appeal will go out live over the Internet for two days at the end of this month, and the lucky winners of the audio stream are ABC News and C-Span. The two organisations will carry the show live on their Web sites, and it will also be available on archive, and for radio broadcast.

The Washington District Appeals Court made the decision to go live with the proceedings because of widespread interest and the shortage of court seating. The court's announcement helpfully gives the phone numbers of somebody at ABC who'll explain how you link to the ABC stream, and somebody else at ABC who'll talk to you about audio broadcast feeds. But we're sure the court is really in the driving seat here, and ABC's likely substantial traffic boost will no doubt be small recompense for the onerous task of providing a valuable public service.

There's nothing to hear just yet, of course, but when the big day comes tune your browser to C-Span's court coverage or wherever the ABC version's going to be. We'd be the last to suggest that right now that link looks like a bid to get you to read all ABC's trial coverage... ®