Microsoft Seeks Dismissal with 9 Dissenting States

zalix writes "Microsoft is seeking a dismissal of the case brought by the 9 States who have refused to settle. In court papers filed yesterday Microsoft claims that the states have no contitutional authority to bring such action stating that "Permitting the nonsettling states to seek sweeping, nationwide relief under the federal antitrust laws and would raise serious constitutional questions," They go on to state "This would destroy Windows desktop operating systems as a stable and consistent development platform,"."

Comments

In future news...

[Dutchmaan]

Microsoft today re-released it's revised version of the second draft of it's DOJ AgreementXP 7.0.9b package.

Under this agreement the states agree to re ammend an future litigation to include future contestment to future settlements of future points of litigation involving but not precluding any agreement in the first place.

In the event of any preclusion of an agreement to be acceptable to both or any parties invlolved are hereby resolved to the point of future litigation pending a court order with at least a 365 day warning pending aprroval of a senate oversight committee.

If these agreements are not met then proceed to Go and do NOT collect $200/month.

States

[Drachemorder]

The states certainly have constitutional authority to bring suit against Microsoft for wrongs that affect their state.

Since Microsoft's actions do, indeed, affect consumers in every single one of the 50 states, I'd say the non-settling states have a very valid case. One could argue that any potential remedies would have to be limited to the states in question, but we all know that isn't very feasible. ("You mean I have to go to another state to get a computer without Windows preinstalled?!")

And don't forget, the judge hasn't approved the Justice Department's settlement yet. She can still overrule it as being insufficient to remedy Microsoft's conduct, and I hope she does exactly that.

If only Judge Jackson had been a bit more polite with his ruling, we might have a couple Baby Bills instead of having to go through all this...

Re:Other reportings..

[gowen]

Microsoft has filed a new motion in U.S. District Court to block media access to four depositions that have already been taken in its antitrust case

The reason is that one of these depositions consists of nothing except Steve Ballmer wearing a big foam hand and chanting "We're number 1! We're number 1! Microsoft! Microsoft!" in sync with 2,000 MS employees. For seven hours.

They're afraid people might take the piss.