[KLUG Members] MSFT wins

[Scott Wood]

--- bob@acm.org wrote:
> Jamie McCarthy <jamie@mccarthy.vg> wrote:
> >"Breaking" news (ha):  Microsoft wins appeal and will not be
> >broken up.
> >http://msnbc.com/news/563498.asp
> 
> Well, they didn't **completely** win the appeal; the second part
> of the statement is prediction.
> 
> The Court of Appeals has dashed the sentence, but has remanded the
> cse back to the District Court level, and remove Thomas Penfield
> Jackson from the case. It is possible that a rework with a different
> judge may result in the same decision and/or the same sentence.
> 
I dunno, everything that I have heard thus far coming out of the various
talking heads and sound-byte interviews lends people to believe that 'splitting
up' will not be a consideration.  They did uphold (7 to 0 unanimous vote) the
ruling that Microsoft was a Monopoly and illegally used this power to influence
their market position, but essentially the overturning all but accused judge
Jackson of being prejudiced in his choice to split of microsoft. (pointing out
the nature of his language as being hostile and such)  I think this will make
any other judges less prone to follow Jackson's lead when solutions are being
dolled out.

> Parts of the original verdict hacve been thrown out, but much still 
> remains. Although it strains my personal sence of credulity to think
> that the current administration will carry this case on with the same
> vigor we saw earlier, much of this is purely judical review. The suits
> by the Attorny Generals of many states is still going forward.
> 
Furthermore, a lot of the discussions I am reading and hearing point to the
possibility of a 'settlement' between the DoJ and M$, and all are saying the
same thing - Micro$oft will probably go for anything short of a break-up when
considering a settlement resolution.

As far as this administration, all you need to do is read the quote snippits
from House Majority leader Dick Armey (sp?) where he (paraphrased) sees this as
a victory for a free market and also states something about it being 'in
support of innovation'.  Apparently he hasn't seen any of the polls where
consumers and techies alike tend to see Microsoft as more of an immitator than
an innovator...

Scott

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