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Microsoft Loses Delay Appeal
cheesethegreat was the first to submit that Microsoft has lost their appeal to delay their case by requesting a review with the Supreme Court. We mentioned the appeal a few weeks ago. The link doesn't say much more than that the appeals court denied the delay.
Yes... but in order to actually open the bundle and see the contents you have to agree to the EULA which requires you to find in favor of MS for all criminal and civil cases.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
The server market is just not significant. Very few people run their own servers, and companies don't upgrade their servers/routers/firewalls that often. The cash-flow, per unit time, is very small, even though servers (per se) cost a great deal.
The embedded market is also a limited one. Many embedded systems are embedded precicely because replacing the hardware or software would be prohibitive. As such, there's just no money in it. It's less a well, and more a puddle.
Whilst it is true that anybody "can" write a desktop OS for the PC architecture, in order to be competitive, you MUST have OEMs who support it and software houses who develop for it. Many a good system has died, because it was useless to the users. But OEMs are under intense pressure (and have been placed under contracts later ruled illegal) to ONLY supply Microsoft products. Software houses, such as Netscape, SpyGlass, etc, have either been pushed out of business, bought out completely, or had their products stolen. (Microsoft has been found guilty of software theft, in the past, most notably with the disk compression system in DOS 6.0.) Under those conditions, no competitor can thrive, or even survive.
Microsoft pretty much owns TV-based Internet access, via WebTV. And that means that it has a very strong grasp on Internet-aware appliances, once those develop. After all, that is what WebTV essentially is.
As for the market deciding -- it no longer has the power to. For the market to decide to switch away from Microsoft, EVERY SINGLE COMPANY, organization, household, etc, that uses Microsoft products would have to change at the same time, in the same direction, to an alternative that already supports the current Microsoft standard. Failure to do so would mean total chaos. Documents, spreadsheets, databases, etc, would be unreadable. Networks would stop working. Printers would stop printing. In short, civilization is as hooked on Microsoft as any heroin addict is on their drug. Microsoft-specific protocols, such as SMB and NetBEUI, and Microsoft-specific file formats, permeate everything. Any attempt to go "Cold Turkey" would be every bit as lethal as it would be for that addict.
THIS, in my humble(?) opinion, is the great threat Microsoft pose. Their products are just products. The label isn't important. And money, for corporations, is just play-stuff, anyway. The numbers mean nothing more than the numbers on a pinball machine.
BUT the addiction factor. Now, that CANNOT be escaped. Microsoft can tell the market exactly what to do, and the market will respond. The price of failure would be too great.
IMHO, this trial's focus on the Sherman Anti-Trust laws is all fine and well. But the real issues that keep getting mentioned are those addictive ones. Has Microsoft made withdrawl just too dangerous for anyone to contemplate?
If the answer is yes, then the Government damn well better "interfere". A Government exists to prevent dictatorial power-blocs from forming, where that dictator has created conditions such that refusing to be dictated to carries a penalty sufficiently high that your average person will comply.
I dislike the "libertarian" notion of removing "Big Government", alone. It creates a power vaccuum. Such a vaccuum created the monstrosity we know as Microsoft. Power vaccuums are BAD. Even if the power that was in them was "bad", the space left behind when that power is gone is MUCH worse.
TRUE Libertarianism would have to include limiting ALL entities, not just the Government. Otherwise, you replace an elected evil that has legal limits with an unelected one that has no limits at all.
I don't want to live in William Gibson's Neuromancer nightmare, or the sickness of Max Headroom. You might, and that's your choice, but frankly the thought of corporations becoming the latter-day Feudal Lords and Barrons is terrifying to me. You really, truly don't want to back-slide into a Feudal society. You just don't. If you aren't sure why, look through some English history books, some time. Specifically, look up events such as "The Peasents Revolt", the massacres perpetrated by King William and King Rufus, the endless horrors of the Tower of London, and the numerous regional wars (such as the Wars of the Roses).
If companies such as AOL and Microsoft are not subject to law, what's to stop them from buying up a bunch of mobile rocket launchers, and wiping out all who oppose them?
Am I going too far? Maybe not. In the end, what is the difference between destroying a competitor through intimidation, deceit, and industrial espionage, or destroying them with a short-range ballistic missile? The missile would probably work out cheaper, have a much higher chance of success over a shorter time-span, and be much more influential in how other companies act in future.
If the corporate wars have no bounds, then sooner or later, it's going to expand beyond mere price wars, verbal threats and forged video tapes.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Excellent idea. I say we call them Micros~1, Micros~2, and Micros~3.
Kinda makes it sound like XP is some sort of evil master plan instead of some grand improvement on Windows.
I can picture it now (swirly effect)
Steve: Master Bill, the Justice dept. is coming to attack us for our evil marketing practices and thwart our release of XP.
Bill: Call my Flying Lawyer Monkeys. (speaks to head lawyer monkey)This Justice department *must* be stopped. Take your Flying Lawyer Monkeys and hold them off until Oct 25 (Dec 21:). If we can't get an appeal, then make sure we can get a delay. Because after Oct 25, XP will be released and our power solidified. Then the world will be powerless against us.
Fly, my little Flying Lawyer Monkeys, fly!
/*drunk.. fix later*/
Am I the only one on earth who thinks that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson knew what he was doing when he talked to the press?
Fact one: Jackson split off his statement of facts from his statement of law. The statement of facts was very competent and comprehensive.
Fact two: He didn't start talking to the press until after the statement of facts had been filed.
Fact three: This case is huge; it's the biggest anti-trust case in 100 years. There is an enormous amount of money behind Microsoft. Jackson knew that there was zero possibility that the case would be a slam-dunk on appeal. The higher courts have to answer to that much money to some extent; it's impossible to ignore it in a capitalist culture, particularly when soft money elects (read: appoints) Congress and the President.
BE IT RESOLVED, that Jackson had to throw a bone to Microsoft. He gives something for Microsoft to chew on, and he gives the higher courts a way to appear that they are carefully considering the legitimate interests of Capital.
So Jackson threw a fake drug-store doggie bone to Microsoft by talking to the press. They chewed happily on it for a year, virtually ignoring the hefty record of facts that had been compiled at the trial. The issue of Jackson's prejudice was highlighted by Microsoft in their appeal, setting the stage for the Circuit to unanimously affirm almost all of the important facts, while slapping down Judge Jackson.
All the media bite down on the same fake doggie bone. Microsoft thinks they won, because the appellate decision was superficially ambivalent so that the media don't bother reading the record. Meanwhile, the important facts are upheld unanimously, and it seems unlikely at this point that the Supremes will even hear the case.
Here we are, 15 months after Judge Jackson's structural remedy. The remedy is thrown out, but the case was so big that something had to be thrown out in any event. Jackson's victory is that he got the least significant decision he made thrown out, by carefully orchestrating the appearance of prejudice according to a precise time table.
Here we are, 15 months later, and Microsoft has run out of delaying tactics. A new judge will be appointed who is required to do something major, because the facts have been affirmed unanimously and are not within his purview to challenge. He has merely to appear fair-minded, and his decision with respect to remedies will stick.
Stick that in your ear, Microsoft.
don't hold your breath. Our legal system is unbelievably slow and unwieldy, getting an injunction issued before October 25th is not going to happen no matter how anti-competitive Windows XP is. If there is an injunction issued in time, Microsoft will ask for a temporary lift on that injunction so that it can appeal it and the lift will be approved, leaving them free to begin shipping XP which will make any further attempts to stop XPs anti-competive features moot.
Yes, eventually Microsoft will lose several cases and exhaust all appeals, but I firmly believe that by the time the first case is finally over I (17 year old high school Senior) will be out of college and possibly even a husband/father. The Open-Source and Free Software community can not sit arround hoping for the courts to "kill" Microsoft. Instead, Microsoft must be "killed" by the production of incredible Free Software that totally blow any proprietory products out of the game. There is no reason why this cannot be done, after all Open-Source projects have the advantage of having MANY more developers than any company can hope for. If more developer put forth a serious effort to better existing projects those projects could easily outshine any proprietory competitors.
The main problem with most Open-Source software is it is always playing catch-up to proprietory software. Open-Source developers need to design original and innovative features as well as incorporate existing features. A great start would be Linux Only games, but not just any games, incredible FPSs, RPGs, and Racing Games. Trust me on this, make a great word processor and Joe Sixpack won't give a flying fuck, make an advanced and extremely gory FPS thats only available on Linux, and Joe Sixpack will have the newest copy of Redhat (or any other Distro) with 2 hours of the announcement.
In conclusion, the fall of MS will only be brought about by the development of great, solid, and innovative Free Software (especially in the entertainment areas), not by the courts.
"
But in this case, the glove not only fits, but it comes bundled with the bloody knife and bodies.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar