Thanks Tim! Microsoft's settlement of the private antitrust actions filed against it "makes a mockery of class actions" because it deliberately fails to compensate plaintiffs and is likely to be rejected by the court perhaps in the next couple of days. The "mockery" comment comes not from Microsoft, nor from a critic of class-action lawsuits, but from a plaintiffs' lawyer involved in the case against the software colossus. The proposed settlement has deeply divided the class-action bar itself. Attorneys representing plaintiffs in the case have weighed in with powerful objections to the idea of settling the case by having Microsoft give computers and software to needy schools. They have urged Maryland federal court judge J. Frederick Motz to reject it and start all over. The proposed settlement raises questions about how class actions are prosecuted. There are always issues of whether class-action lawyers truly serve the interests of class members; but those questions become sharper in this case, where none of the relief is going to class members. Most of the discussion of the settlement plan so far has focused on objections by Apple Computer, Red Hat, Linux advocates and others, who say that the plan will only help Microsoft extend its monopoly by gaining strength in school systems, where Apple remains the leader.