The non-settling states argue that the settlement reached with the U.S. Justice Department and nine other states is too weak to stop Microsoft from flexing its monopoly power in technologies that have arisen since the case began nearly four years ago.

"There's a remarkable similarity between the conduct in the record and the conduct being employed today and what will be available to Microsoft in the future," Brendan Sullivan, an attorney for the states that have refused to settle, told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

Microsoft has already portrayed the states' demands as excessive in pre-hearing submissions and is expected to argue that any remedies be confined strictly to the trial record.

The company was due to address the judge later on Monday--the first day of hearings expected to last eight weeks.

In June, a federal appeals court threw out some of the charges against Microsoft, but upheld a lower court ruling that the company had illegally maintained its Windows software monopoly in personal computer operating systems.

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The appellate judges agreed Microsoft tried to crush rival Netscape Communications after the company concluded Netscape's Navigator Internet browser was a threat to Windows' dominance.

Sullivan urged Kollar-Kotelly to deny Microsoft what he called the "fruits of their monopoly abuse" and to free the software market to allow more competition.

"The plaintiffs are not here to punish Microsoft," Sullivan said. "The plaintiffs' goals are to make Microsoft behave properly."

Kollar-Kotelly is considering whether the settlement reached with the Justice Department in November is in the public interest under a separate proceeding.

When the government first brought its landmark antitrust case, few computer users had ever heard of media players, instant messaging or interactive television set-top boxes.

These products will now be featured in court by the non-settling states with witnesses from companies like telecommunications giant SBC Communications, hand-held computer maker Palm and interactive television software maker Liberate Technologies.

The states are proposing that Microsoft sell a "modular" version of Windows that would allow computer makers to strip out add-on features like the Internet Explorer browser or Microsoft's media player.

They also would force Microsoft to disclose more about its software and license its browser to other companies royalty-free.

The proposed settlement is designed to remedy the antitrust violations by giving computer makers more freedom to feature rival software on their products, among other things.

Microsoft has scheduled a parade of company executives, economists and legal experts for the remedy hearings to argue that sanctions can't go beyond the specific wrongdoings cited by the appeals court.

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