CompuServe Messages

"He's refering to the documented criminal practices that Microsoft used to achieve market dominance." To the best of my knowledge, Wayne, no one at the Justice Department has ever accused Microsoft of *criminal* violations of any anti-trust or other law. If you have some credible source that indicates otherwise, I'd be very interesting in seeing it. In regard to Judge Sporkins ruling, it's good to see a truly independent jurist on the bench. In my opinion, the Microsoft/Justice settlement was a whitewash engineered by Bill Clinton in return for campaign contributions. "We'll pretend to investigate you and you pretend to agree to a settlement" is the operative scenario here. A first year law student could have found mountains of evidence indicating anti-competitive behavior on Microsoft's part and I'm pleased to see the Judge basically say so. But none of that behavior was criminal. I've done business with Microsoft and in my opinion, every one who works there leaves their sense of ethics and honesty at the front door. I would, however, work with them again: I'd just draw the contracts more tightly and budget for litigation. That's the only thing those people understand, especially since the Stac decision. (They really ought to erect a statue to Stac's President for having the guts to fight them.) And, by the way, the chances are high that Sporkin's ruling will fail on appeal. But at least the guy deserves credit for sending a strong message to both Bills, Hillary, Jane and Janet that their BS isn't flying. Jerry