November 18, 1998
Judge Rules Against Microsoft
In Battle With Sun Over Java
By LEE GOMES
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A federal judge ruled against Microsoft Corp. in a high-stakes
legal battle with Sun Microsystems Inc., ordering Microsoft to
rewrite parts of the Windows 98 operating system and other
products to comply with Sun's version of the Java programming
language.
The preliminary injunction by Ronald M. Whyte, U.S. District
Judge in San Jose, Calif., is a resounding victory for Sun in
the hard-fought contract dispute with archrival Microsoft. The
judge ruled there was a strong likelihood that Sun would prevail
in a full trial in its suit for copyright infringement and
unfair competition it filed against Microsoft last year.
As a result, he gave Microsoft 90 days to rework both its
Windows 98 and its Internet Explorer browser to make them
compatible with Sun's Java specifications. The judge also
ordered Microsoft to rewrite the Java development kit it
provides to software programmers.
However, the ruling doesn't require Microsoft to recall existing
versions of any of those products.
While separate to the Justice Department trial against Microsoft
now underway in Washington, the decision could nonetheless
bolster the government's case against the software giant. That's
because federal antitrust regulators have argued that
Microsoft's attempt to snuff out the threat posed by Java was
another abuse of the company's monopoly power.
Java was marketed by Sun as a kind of lingua franca for the
computer industry, making it easier to develop programs that
could work without modification on any computer or operating
software. Because that would tend to reduce the influence of
Microsoft's Windows system, Java became a rallying cry for most
of the software company's opponents, notably International
Business Machines Corp., Netscape Communications Corp. and
Novell Inc.
Sun alleged that Microsoft was improperly trying to splinter the
movement by introducing technology that tied Java to Windows.
The ruling could help make Java a viable alternative by keeping
the strains unified, industry executives said.
Microsoft group Vice President Paul Maritz said the company was
"disappointed" in the ruling, and predicted Microsoft would
prevail when a full trial is held on the issue, which is
expected to occur next year.
Mr. Moritz said late Tuesday afternoon that because Microsoft
was still studying the decision, it did not yet know how it
would comply with it. In the short term, Microsoft said, it was
likely to include Sun's technology directly in its Windows
products. But the company said that for the longer term, it was
considering other options, such as its own "clean room" version
of Java that did not rely on any Sun technology. Mr. Moritz said
a final decision on the issue would be made later this week.
Alan Baratz, head of Sun's Java division, called the ruling "a
win for Java licensees, for developers and for consumers." He
also held out an olive branch to Microsoft, saying "this is an
opportunity for Microsoft to rejoin the Java community,"
promising Sun's help if it chose to do so.
Java has been a contentious issue between Sun and Microsoft
almost from the day back in 1995 when Microsoft decided to
license Java from Sun and incorporate the software throughout
its products. That decision surprised many people in the
computer industry, because Sun had been marketing Java as an
alternative to Microsoft's dominant Windows software. Since
then, both Sun and Microsoft have battled in the court of public
opinion about whose version of the language better suited the
computer industry.
The actual legal fight between them turned on two highly
technical issues involving Microsoft's implementation of Java --
both of which Judge Whyte decided in Sun's favor.
One involved the protocols by which a Java program would
interact with a program written for Windows, such as one using
the "C" programming language. Both Sun and Microsoft claimed
they had the right to define these protocols. Microsoft, in
fact, said surrendering this right was tantamount to giving Sun
control of its software "crown jewels."
It is this set of protocols that Microsoft must now somehow fix
in both its Windows 98 operating system and its Internet
browser. The actual changes aren't likely to be noticed by any
users, since few if any real-world Java programs actually make
use of the disputed protocols. Similarly, the decision is not
expected to have any financial impact on Microsoft. It is
nonetheless a rare and humbling legal defeat for the company,
putting it in the humiliating position of having to redo its
flagship product at the behest of its most vocal critic.
The other legal issue involved whether Microsoft could create
unique and noncompatible improvements to Java in the programming
kit it sells to software developers. In this case, Judge Whyte
ruled that Microsoft must from here on out warn developers that
using the Microsoft additions might result in Java programs
incompatible with Sun's.
No date has been set for the full trial. But when one occurs,
Sun said Tuesday, it will ask that the judge's order be made
permanent. It also said that it will seek unspecified monetary
damages from Microsoft.
Copyright © 1998 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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