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FC: Microsoft judge: Proposed punishments help rivals, not consumers

------- 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.

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