Some excepts from oral arguments:
msnbc.com
About product tying and remedy:
Judge Sentelle: ...“If there isn’t a proper finding ... then we would have to at least send
this back for some trial judge to weigh the facts, wouldn’t we?”
Judge Tatel: ...A violation of law would only kick in if several events happened, ...
“Microsoft’s Explorer would have to take over the market and you
would have to have a barrier to entry,” ...“I mean, that’s awfully speculative,”... “I don’t
see anything in the record at all that would suggest that there’s a dangerous probability of
all of those three things happening under those circumstances”
Judge Edwards: ...“I find it absurd that to proclaim that there is a market for a browserless
operating system...”
Judge Ginsberg:... if the appeals court overturns the verdict on just the tying issue “then I
don’t know how we can be confident of what the district court would have done” in
regards to remedy, had it found the integration of the browser into Windows legal ...
if OpsCo developed its own browser, “it then has the leverage of the
old [Microsoft] and it can go from zero to 80 in twenty seconds.”
Judge Williams: ...“I don’t see how you think this [breakup plan] is effective” ...
About Judge Jackson:
Judge Sentelle: ...Jackson’s comments were a “violation of the whole office” and that
“I don’t even discuss cases with my best friends … that’s not what we do.”...“What is the
unbiased reason for a judge to talk to reporters behind closed doors and say bad things
about a litigant before him?”...“He’s so far from anything benign,”, noting that Jackson
had set a record for “the biggest number [of extra-judicial comments] that has ever
occurred.”... “I’m not sure how you can ask us with a straight face” not to consider
possible bias in Jackson’s comment...
Judge Tatel: ...asked John Rogers, who was arguing on the government’s behalf, if he had
any possible explanation for why Jackson would have equated Microsoft executives to the
“Newton Street Crew,” a group of four convicted murderers... a judge gets into trouble if a
“reasonable person” would see his comments, no matter how benign, as being biased.
“It’s a matter of appearances”...
Judge Edwards: ... nearly yelling: “It’s beyond the pale!”... “There are lots of things we
think about advocates and parties … we don’t go off and shoot off our mouths. That
would make a sham of the proceedings… we just don’t do it. ”... |
