Microsoft Antitrust Judgement

An anonymous reader writes "Here are the links to the as-yet-unreleased judgement in the Microsoft case by CKK: Final Decree, Memorandum Opinion, Public Interest Order, Opinion on the State Settlement, State Settlement Order." In brief: Kollar-Kotelly accepts the settlement that the Federal Gov't and some states wanted, but she wants a minor change to it; and she has decided the case which was pursued by the other states as well, mostly ordering Microsoft to refrain from certain behaviors with regard to the user-visible desktop. Overall: a massive win for Microsoft, who can restrict the release of its APIs to major commercial companies only.

Comments

Here come the Japanese!

[mwalker]

Did anyone actually read FinalDecree.pdf? Kotar-Kotelly has ordered that Microsoft has to open it's API's to competitors for five years . This is the equivalent of a death sentence for Microsoft. All successfuly software companies close their source code and API's to protect themselves from theft by their competition. Now that Microsoft's designs and components are out in the open, they are ripe for picking by the Japanese competitors that have been scoping out the American software market for years.

This is the death of American dominance in the software industry. The Japanese are going to use this crippling disadvantage to reverse engineer Windows with cheap, foreign labor (Indian coding sweatshops and the like) just like they've done with other industries.

Mark my words, in ten years you'll all be using NEC/OS.

Re:Huh?

[squiggleslash]

You're right. The other person who responded to you and the moderator who modded you down may prefer not to admit it, but it's pretty well known that the Bush/Ashcroft DoJ were embarrassed by the Appeal Court ruling (which upheld Jackson's verdict) and negotiated something that wouldn't cause much harm to Microsoft.

This is a depressing resolution. Someone is convicted of harming competition and told that they will barely get punished because the judge doesn't want to risk aiding Microsoft's "competition" (or rather, potential competition - there is no sodding competition right now.)

The message has gone out - illegally monopolise, and we'll drag you through a trial, but we will not do anything at all that might actually remove you from that monopoly. Keep your prices high enough to pay for the trial, and you'll be fine.