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MA to Appeal Microsoft Settlement
Posted by Paul Szynol on Friday, November 29 @ 15:21:53 EST Antitrust
Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly announced that MA will appeal the Microsoft settlement -- a "loophole-filled deal" -- even if the state has to "go it alone."

West Virginia will decide on Monday whether to participate in the appeal.

The other seven states and the District of Columbia will not appeal.

NY Times coverage is here. Reuters reports here.

 
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Re: MA to Appeal Microsoft Settlement (Score: 1)
by HowardGilbert on Sunday, December 01 @ 20:40:03 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.yale.edu/pclt
This appeal will give the Circuit Court an opportunity to complete its unfinished business and reverse the Findings of Fact and Findings of Law. Their previous decison found that there had been judicial misconduct and an appearance of bias. However, overtuning the entire case and ordering a new trial at that point was not in the best interest of justice. Many of the Microsoft actions found to be illegal were not in dispute. The agreement with Apple on IE can still be found in press releases on both the Apple and Microsoft Web sites. The illegal agreement with Intel on Java support was never disputed. So the Circuit Court found a pretense to avoid immediately remanding the entire case for retrial, and that provided the opportunity to lay out where the case was going to go.

Microsoft learned that some of its business practices would inevitably be found illegal. The governments learned that the core of their original complaint, on browser integration and Java, were not going to fly. This framework forced both sides to confront reality, leading to the recently approved settlement.

There is now no motivation to keep the case alive. Almost all the original parties are satisfied with the outcome. Meanwhile, the Findings of Fact are about to be introduced into other cases. Although judicial misconduct is a matter that everyone takes seriously, up to this point no effort was made to gather evidence to completely characterize its scope, depth, and timeframe. One can speculate that this apparent indifference was a temporary stance. It allowed the Circuit Court to render an opinion on the substance of the case that, in turn, led to a successful settlement. The second time the case is presented to them, they will have every reason to clean the slate and wipe this miserable mistake from the record.

Faced with a new trial, MA will then drop the case.


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Re: MA to Appeal Microsoft Settlement (Score: 1)
by JamesGrimmelmann on Monday, December 02 @ 19:03:57 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.laboratorium.net
West Virginia [www.msnbc.com]: in for a penny, in for a pound.


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