[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Microsoft judge: Proposed punishments help rivals, not consumers

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Fri, 1 Nov 2002 21:58:21 -0500
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Microsoft judge: Proposed punishments help rivals, not consumers
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com


http://news.com.com/2100-1001-964332.html

   Rivals come up short in decision
   By Declan McCullagh 
   November 1, 2002, 6:00 PM PT

   WASHINGTON--U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said
   Friday that she rejected harsh antitrust punishments for Microsoft
   because they would unfairly benefit its competitors. 

   In her strongly worded decision, Kollar-Kotelly said that the
   remedies proposed by nine state attorneys general were so
   outlandish that they amounted to an "unjustified manipulation of
   the marketplace" designed to give competitors such as Sun
   Microsystems, Apple Computer, and Red Hat an "artificial
   advantage."

   In a 344-page decision, Kollar-Kotelly dismissed many of the
   proposals as based on a misunderstanding of antitrust law and the
   purpose of 32 days of remedy hearings this spring.

   "Microsoft's competitors appear to be those who most desire these
   provisions and, concomitantly, are the likely beneficiaries of
   these provisions, while other competitors in the relevant market
   would not necessarily benefit. In bringing these types of proposals
   before the court, (the states) again misunderstand the task
   presently before the court," Kollar-Kotelly wrote.

   Richard Green, a vice president at rival Sun Microsystems,
   testified during the remedy hearing in March that Microsoft's Java
   Virtual Machine was unfairly incompatible with his employer's. But
   Kollar-Kotelly said Sun's complaints were merely an attempt to
   attack a competitor.

   [...]



----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing
list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this
notice. To subscribe to Politech:
http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is
archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs
are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- Like Politech? Make a donation here:
http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles:
http://news.search.com/search?q=declan
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---

------- End of forwarded message -------


-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: debate-unsubscribe@lists.fitug.de
For additional commands, e-mail: debate-help@lists.fitug.de