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To: The Duke of URL© who wrote (71197)	11/8/1999 8:45:00 AM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Duke - I thought that the background was important to set the context, and was on the whole well done. It is obvious that the Judge was well coached by someone, this is one of the more cogent legal descriptions of a complex technology area. I have been in court on several occasions as an expert witness in technology disputes, and it is usual to do a lot of "education" because the lawyers and Judges can easily get confused or mislead. The Judge also takes the position, at every turn, that the events describe a pattern of abusive behavior on the part of MSFT. This part of the ruling is more troubling, since it predisposes the finding of fact. One might well ask what other behavior one might have expected, given the industry and laws at the time. My sense is that the industry moves way too fast for the legal system to deal with it effectively. But that does not mean that rulings like this have no place. MSFT was, for years, an arrogant bully, and that has started to change just because they are in this dispute. In fact, the single most common trait defining MSFT development and negotiating style is arrogance. A little humility would do them good. Having said that, I don't happen to agree with the Judge's conclusions for the most part. But I don't think it makes any difference... the benefit to the industry, and even to MSFT, has been in the process. Many people at MSFT were surprised at the responses they got from their "friends" during the trial, and it was a wake-up call to them to start listening more. Especially the developer community - the combination of the trial and the Linux phenomenon really said to them that MSFT had gone from being the good guys to being the bad guys in only a few years. Any legal remedies will probably be inappropriate when applied, and in this case almost everything that was at issue has been washed away by events well ahead of the trial results, and not to the particular benefit of one side or the other.