Warning: Outlook Express Can Damage Your Postcards

Lost count of the number of court actions Microsoft is involved in? Well, in yet another one, a Californian judge has found that the company failed to comply with an earlier ruling he made on email filtering software.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Robert Baines had ordered Microsoft to warn users of Outlook Express that use of its email filtering technology could result in genuine mail being junked. The case had been brought by Blue Mountain Arts, whose electronic greeting cards are indeed blocked by Microsoft filters.

Blue Mountain claims it first started having problems with Outlook users in November, just after (oh dear, not again…) Microsoft launched its own electronic greeting card service.

The latest order compels Microsoft to post a warning on its main Web site, (Fairly Small Warning) and this has indeed happened. Says the site now: "Users are advised that Outlook Express comes equipped with a 'junk' mail filter which, when turned on, may relegate legitimate emails, such as electronic greeting cards from family or friends, to the junk mail folder, and dispose of them according to the user's preference."

But if you actually click on the link headed "Warning to users of Outlook Express 5 beta" you get linked through the IE home page, which is chock-full of ecstatic words about the IE 5 beta, and nary a cheep about Outlook Express warnings. Looks a bit like Redmond is taking the mickey again, judge... ®

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