The conduct remedy may be a blunt instrument but it's certainly not impotent.

"The problem with any conduct remedy is that it can't bring back the dead," he said.

"But the devil is in the details in all the conduct remedies."

Besides, the conduct remedies would be difficult to enforce, requiring constant government monitoring of the American software industry for years to come.

The company was also ordered to comply with a long list of restrictions on its business practices known as conduct remedies.

Successful conduct remedies are harder to come by, antitrust experts say.

He could focus on so-called conduct remedies for some of the ways Microsoft unfairly drove out competition.

So the states prepared a list of conduct remedies, with those three ideas at the center.

At the Justice Department, meanwhile, officials were talking to industry leaders about the ops-aps idea, and other short-term conduct remedies to go with it.

Concerned about their prospects on appeal, and about public opinion, among other issues, the states had been planning to ask only for conduct remedies.