[Am-info] Mass. Argues for More Microsoft Penalties

[Gene Gaines]

>From ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20030716_2514.html


Mass. Argues for More Microsoft Penalties
Massachusetts Urges U.S. Appeals Court for Tougher Microsoft Penalties

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON July 16, 2003

In a final round of legal briefs, Massachusetts urged a U.S.
appeals court Wednesday to impose tougher antitrust sanctions
against Microsoft Corp. The state complained that a settlement
negotiated with the Bush administration was inadequate to
discourage future monopolists from behaving illegally.

Lawyers for Massachusetts, the only state to refuse to settle the
landmark antitrust case, accused the trial judge of a "profound
misunderstanding" when she approved the settlement among
Microsoft, the Justice Department and 18 other states.

The state wants the appeals court to instruct the trial judge to
impose tougher penalties, including a requirement that Microsoft
be forced to remove some features from its Windows operating
system. Courtroom arguments before the appellate judges were to
begin in November.

The Massachusetts lawyers said the existing settlement "fails to
stop all of the behavior this court found illegal, does nothing to
restore the competitive threat that Microsoft unlawfully thwarted
and does not deprive Microsoft of the marketplace benefits
achieved through its misdeeds."

A Microsoft spokesman, Jim Desler, said the company "has complied
with all aspects of the consent decree." Microsoft has argued
previously it is unable to remove features from Windows, such as
its audio or video software.

The court fight culminated last November when U.S. District Judge
Colleen Kollar-Kotelly accepted nearly all the settlement
provisions. She rebuffed arguments by nine states and the District
of Columbia that tougher sanctions were essential to restore
competition in the computer industry.

All the states except Massachusetts eventually joined in the
settlement, which gives Microsoft rivals more flexibility to offer
competing software features on computers running its flagship
Windows operating system.

Massachusetts said the settlement doesn't deter future monopolists
from illegal acts.

"If this is the remedy in a case of this magnitude, then there is
little reason why any monopolist or would-be monopolist should
hesitate to embark on a similar course of unlawful conduct,"
lawyers wrote.