The Microsoft antitrust case yesterday took a new turn when Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly granted the nine US States still fighting the company access to Windows source code. They'd asked for this earlier in the week, but it's still faintly surprising that they're going to get it (apparently - Microsoft can be expected to wriggle and emit loud stuck pig noises).

Kollar-Kotelly played it deadpan: ""It seems to me that if your side has access to it, then the other side, frankly, should have access to it," she said in a conference call. Presumably she means 'access for the purpose of the case,' as otherwise the reasoning would apply equally to, say, access to Steve Ballmer's stock options.

One interesting aspect of the judge's order is that the States are specifically being given access to Windows XP embedded code, as they are of the view that this particular class of Windows can be used to show that Windows can be customised. The Register's view is that embedded versions of Windows are considerably less customised and embedded than Microsoft actually lets on, but we'll see.

Or perhaps we'll see. Microsoft is so sensitive about access to its source code that it will surely now go into a legal frenzy fighting the order, so it could take a while. ®

Related links:
Show us Windows source, States ask judge