Microsoft Appeal Schedule Set

Quite a few people have submitted the the information that the Microsoft Anti-Trust Case has had its schedule set. Nov. 27 is the deadline for a submittal of MS's brief, which will be limited to 150 pages. The Justice Dept has until Jan 12, 2001 with 125 pages. And...you can read the rest.

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MS Announcement

[Veteran]

Redmond WA Microsoft (msft) today announced that the number of people working on Appeal (V2.0) had been doubled due to production problems.

Although the original spec for the project called for 150 pages, Microsoft announced that they had decided to delay release by an additional 3 months to allow the increased staff to deliver a 450 page product. The new projected release date for Appeal (v2.0) would be February 27th 2001.

A Microsoft spokesman said "We didn't feel that we could do a very good job on the product in only 150 pages, so we decided to push the release date back from the original end of November target to the end of February next year. We believe that we can include considerably more functionality in Appeal (V2.0) in 450 pages than we could if we limited ourselves to the original target."

Microsoft also pre announced Appeal (V3.0) which spokesman said "would be over 3000 pages - a considerable increase." One source close to the Appeal (v3.0) team said that over 1000 pages of Appeal (V3.0) would be a reprint of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged with the "John Galt" character name being changed to "Bill Gates".

Mr. Gates said he was pleased with the progress on Appeal (V3.0), which he said could "revolutionize the legal industry". He strongly hinted that Appeal (V2.0) was a "stopgap" release, and that Appeal (V3.0) would be the release everyone should wait for.

Gore or Bush?

[Benjamin Shniper]

Federal Judges are appointed by the President, as are supreme court justices. It probably matters who you vote for, as GWB has accepted campaign
contributions from microsoft employees (and opposed litigation sometimes. A consultant for him worked at M$)

http://www.democrats.org/news/bulletins/sb030300 .html

while Gore spoke AT Microsoft in FAVOUR of litigaton:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctg675.h tm

In other words, those who are looking for government to give M$ a well deserved slapdown are going to be better supporting Gore.

-Ben

P.S. I don't like public health programs and the current Social Security laws. I'm still voting for Bush.

A small but significant win for MS

[Masem]

Because this means that there will be a change in President by the time the trial actually starts, MS might have gained another advantage (in addition to the one of having the appealate court take the case before the SC). While obviously Dubya will want to try to remove the case, Gore has hinted at stopping the nonsense as well (not because he's pro-Microsoft, but more laisse-faire). Only the third party candidates seems interested in chasing the issue, and they have little chance. So new Prez may nudge the DOJ into dropping the case, which could be a major vicitor for BillG.

However, remember that there are 19 states still following this up, and the new Prez can't tell them to drop it. Yes, without DOJ support, the states' case have a bit tougher time of winning, but they've already gotten past the key issue ( the finding of facts) with the DOJ's help.

Another thing in BillG's favor is that there's suggestions that the appealate court might send the case back to the federal level, with the stipulation that Judge Jackson cannot preside over it because of bias he stated in interviews after the trial (and during the trial if rumors are right). Mind you, a new judge could be worse for MS, but I think they'd take their chance with that.

But of course, MS wins mainly because we are now looking at any resolution to this (after appeals and SC hearings) no earlier than Q4, 2001, approximately the scheduled release of .NET. And if Win95 with IE was a problem, .NET would be even worse, and asking MS to halt the use of .NET would be like telling Napster to shut down -- they *could* claim they will go out of business with any unfavorable/breakup/C&D ruling, and most likely, we'll end up with another slap on the wrist case. The DOJ and others need to put pressure on the court system to speed this case up to still allow it to be fair, but to make sure that MS 'innovation' doesn't suck in too many ppl when the ruling is handed down.

Bush interview transcript

[Chalst]

There's an online transcript of an interview with George Bush from April which says clearly
that he supports anti-trust law, will yield to the judges opinion on
the anti-trust case, and dismisses speculation that he is in the
Microsft camp.

Unless people have better information, I think this should put to rest
the `Bush will axe MS case' rumor.