| A federal judge on Friday endorsed all of the antitrust settlement that Microsoft 
Corp. reached with the Justice Department last year, sources familiar with the ruling 
said. The sources said U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly had rejected the 
alternative demands of nine states opposed to the settlement.  An appeals court in June of 2001 upheld trial court findings that Microsoft had 
illegally maintained its Windows monopoly in personal computer operating systems. 
There was no immediate word on whether the nine states, which had rejected the settlement 
of the over four-year-old case as ineffective, would appeal Kollar-Kotelly's decision. |