[Am-info] MS gets off scott free

[John J. Urbaniak]

Joe,

I agree that this provision is very odd.  Your analysis is interesting.

But who's going to report any violations to the Judge?  She'll have to wait
for a complaint from somebody before taking the action you predict.  Whose
complaint will she hear?  Certainly not the nine states, certainly not Sun
nor AOL.  And very certainly not IBM.  Those IBM cowards have just crawled
into holes and hid their consciences.

I get the feeling that the Judge just wants to be rid of the whole thing.

John


Joe Barr wrote:

> She is laying a trap.  I doubt that Gates will miss it.  I expect MS to
> vigorously fight against her suggested revisions to the proposed
> settlement.
>
> Why do I feel that way?
>
> She warned MS execs in court that their promises to be good would come
> back to haunt them if their actions didn't match their words.
>
> In her opinion, she makes it quite clear that she is aware of
> Microsoft's propensity for lies.  The prince and all that.
>
> And finally, one of the most glaring weaknesses in the proposed
> settlement is its lack of teeth.  Her amendments give her full and
> immediate power to enforce "the letter and the spirit" of the final
> judgement.
>
> By putting only MS folks on the committee, she is making it Microsoft's
> responsibility and Microsoft's responsibility alone to adhere to the
> settlement.  That's the extra rope.
>
> This little old lady is going to bring MS to its knees.  Watch and see.
>
> On Sat, 2002-11-02 at 08:15, Roy Bixler wrote:
> > On Sat, Nov 02, 2002 at 07:01:30AM -0600, Joe Barr wrote:
>
> > > She is going to hang them all.  Just giving them the rope to do it
> > > themselves.
> >
> > That certainly is a perverse provision.  Do you think that was her
> > intention?  It's intriguing.
>
> --
> #---------------------------------------------#
> # "All that is necessary for evil to succeed  #
> #  is that good men do nothing."              #
> #                               Edmund Burke  #
> #---------------------------------------------#
>
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