25 More States Oppose MSFT Antitrust Dismissal

phebz23 writes "News.com is reporting that 25 more states (even Washington!) are rallying behind the previous 9 to prevent Judge Kollar-Kotelly from dismissing the case on the grounds that the states should not have say in antitrust policy which is opposite of Microsoft's motion. They cite the Clayton Act, which grants them the authority to continue the case." Important to note that the states say: "even when the federal government has proposed to settle a case. Congress has granted the states clear authority to proceed independently under Section 16, despite the fact that the federal government has chosen not to act, has proposed to settle a case, has in fact settled a case, or has taken the matter to trial."

Comments

Misleading Headline

[BurritoWarrior]

The states aren't really rallying around the other 9. What they are concerned with, isn't this case, but their ability to bring antritrust cases in the future. Hence they are supporting the 9 states bringing of the case regardless of what they feel about the merits of the MS case.

Re:Misleading Headline

[Wateshay]

Republican or not, the current Supreme Court has not been a lapdog for special interests. Since they never need to run a reelection campaign, they're also pretty hard to buy off. Regardless, though, they can have it both ways, if they are so inclined. The issue that will come before them is whether or not the states have jurisdiction in the case, not whether the case itself has merit.

Microsoft has brought this on themselves

[linzeal]

You can piss all over citizen's rights in the united states and barely a wimper will ever be heard in the "hallowed" halls of congress. Piss on the state rights and they will bite your dick off and tell you how tasty it is.

This is I feel the beginning of "to the pain" for microsoft. I wonder if even they understand fully how quaint little laws from the states themselves will begin popping up dragging them into dangerous and legally hopeless territory?

Governmental controls

[BWJones]

This is important for the continuity of government and the law. Essentially the Department of Justice did a complete about face after the Bush administration came into office. (Microsoft gave more money to government and incumbents than did Enron by the way including our Federal Attourney General who while recusing himself from Enron case did not apparently see any conflict of interest in the Microsoft case).

If the states did not have this kind of legal standing, cases that stretched over administrations could side-step the law entirely.

Re:Governmental controls

[nickynicky9doors]

John Locke's vision of a series of checks and balances in government seems sometimes to have achieved something akin to democratic consensus. Not bad for something that doesn't seem sensical

Almost unsurprising

[Vancouverite]

Considering Microsoft's contention that the dissenting states didn't have any legal standing to continue the case, this is pretty unsurprising (although I admit, I didn't expect it).

The states are, at the minimum, protecting their right to bring suit. If the Attorneys General of the states didn't react to the MS contention on standing, they would be falling down in their responsibility to protect the states' legal rights in court.

It will be interesting to see what the actual filings say... so far, I haven't found a public link to them.

It's still good

[restive]

It's true that this antitrust trial is dragging on and on, but I feel it is good for the general public.

Face it, a LOT of the public doesn't really care or understand the ins and outs of this trial. The more states that stand up for their rights, the more the public gets to learn about Microsoft's blatant misuse of their monopoly. It does drag on and on, but it degrades Microsoft's public image by constantly being in court for stuff they KNOW is against the law.

WOH!!! Surprised at Washington! (state)

[Com2Kid]

You would be surprised as to the amount of direct outright propaganda that Washingtonians receive every day in favor of Microsoft.

(such as the 'story' on 'software piracy' that they aired last night. Including how you lose out on that lovely support MS gives you, yah right, LOL! If you buy a plan that includes it. . . . Ah, or how piracy only saves companies a 'few' dollars, not mentioning that those office CDs cost a few hundreds from MS and that buying them FROM piraters costs only a few dollars. Heh.)

All of the stories have such a horrid positive angle to them that I swear MS could declare that Washington State is seceding from The Union and nobody in the news bureaus would bat an eye. :(

Re:I bet Microsoft wishes they donated more money.

[red_dragon]

There is no doubt that Bill will try to correct this situation in the next election. However, (arguably) we all know that Bill is not so dense so as to go bankrupt while buying off every state. So, what else could he do? That's right:

Bill Gates will run for President of the United States

However, he will join neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties, because those were not invented by Microsoft. Instead, he'll be the candidate from the Business Software Alliance Party. Their flag will consist of Clippy drawn over the Windows logo on a blue background.

I shudder at the thought of all this.

Re:I have the solution

[Howard Roark]

Well, at least a thoughtful reply.

The point is to restore competition. Microsoft was able to destroy the market for OS products years by forging exclusive OEM distribution agreements that incorporated a little trick called cliff pricing. This was ruled illegal in the first antitrust case years ago.

By prohibiting MS from selling to OEMs, the marketplace of operating systems is restored. Customers can buy what they want be it Windows or whatever. I suspect (contrary to your assertion) that what would emerge would be a number of Windows compatible operating systems to leverage the huge windows compatible applications base.

The second part of the monopoly is in office suites. This came from Microsoft's ability to take advantage of their control of the platform. Opening the file formats just allows other products to interoperate on a level playing field.

I don't see that this proposed remedy is exessively punitive, it merely restores the marketplace to a state that existed before the illegal behavior. In many ways I feel it is similar to the breakup of the telephone monopoly. True, people would be inconvienced with the burden of choice.

Re:hmm

[Decimal]

Built-in protection against Micorosoft's lobbying efforts at the federal level. I wouldn't have thought our government capable of such forsight.

The government can't help it. The protection is completely integrated with the Operating System. Removing it would break the government completely, or worse, we'd be seeing literally thousands of U.S. government variants! You don't want that, do you?

Governments have a duty not to be manipulated.

[Futurepower(tm)]

Governments have a DUTY not to allow themselves to be manipulated.

I notice that it takes a long time for abuses to be recognized, and to be stopped. Societies do not have efficient means for stopping a determined abuser, particularly one that exploits the lack of technical knowledge of its customers.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been continuing exactly as it did before, testing the limits. Perhaps there should be several new anti-trust and abuse-of-commerce cases.

With Windows XP, Microsoft seems to be trying to blur the distinction between its computers and its customer's computers. Windows XP sometimes resembles a trojan (except that you must pay for it). Numerous operating system programs call Bill:

1. Microsoft Media Player (tells Bill the music you like)
2. Microsoft Direct Play Voice Test
3. Microsoft Help and Support Center
4. Microsoft Help Center Hosting Server
5. Microsoft Application Error Reporting
6. Microsoft Management Console
7. Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service
8. MS DTC Console program
9. Services and Controller app
10. Run DLL as an app
11. Windows Explorer
12. Microsoft Office keeps a number in each file you create that identifies your computer. No one has said why.
13. Microsoft porn search looks on your hard drive for those photos of your wife. Okay, maybe not, but you aren't sure are you?
14. These are just the ones I know about. There may be others.

It is such a relief to use Linux! With Linux, there may be problems, but I know that they aren't caused deliberately. Linux is an OS that does not involve me in adversarial behavior.

Re:end it

[Melantha_Bacchae]

An AC wrote:

> Can't we end this now. Hasn't Mr. Gates suffered enough already?

Microsoft was found to have broken the law. We are now in the penalty phase of the trial. There is no longer any question as to how guilty MS is, only how much they will pay for breaking the law.

Problem is, we can't get Microsoft and their lawyers (both those who are employees of Microsoft and those who supposedly work for the Department of Justice) to clam up and get penalized already. It would really help if the so called "Department of Justice" would quit defending Microsoft and start prosecuting them like they are supposed to be doing. Then we wouldn't have a settlement that MS is using to repeat their illegal activities, and 9 states off on their own because they seem to be the only ones who care about doing their job.

The 25 states will help here, even if they don't formally join in with the nine states. State governments are important, and they have rights, even in this "War on Terror" era. It's high time they stood up and let people know that.

.Net, DRMOS, using the Settlement like a rolled up newspaper to smack their OEMs around... It is plainly clear that Microsoft has not suffered enough, because it obviously has no intention of mending its ways. Until justice is done, until Microsoft mends its ways, until huge corporations respect the law of the land, this isn't over. We have a choice. Either the computer industry becomes vibrant, prosperous, innovative, and free (as in liberty), or we have the Microsoft Millenium. Choose!

"The path of peace is yours to discover for eternity."
"Mosura", 1961