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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: alydar who wrote (46178)	11/3/2001 3:04:22 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 64865

Rocky: to me, this agreement was fair for all parties if it is enforced. We disagree on this. The settlement contains no penalties for Microsoft even after decades spent abusing its monopoly and profiting enormously from that abuse. It contains no admission of wrongdoing, even though wrongdoing was proven. IMHO it isn't fair in the least. In addition, I don't think that it can or will be enforced (what little there is to enforce). Microsoft will come up with a million ways of dragging their feet, continuing to treat vassals preferentially and threatening anyone it perceives as a rival or an upstart, making sure that its own developers get "open API's" first, complying with the letter of the agreement without complying with the spirit, etc. But on this point, only time will tell. the eu is not done with msft and there still can be private lawsuits so they have their hands full. I'm not a lawyer. But I believe the settlement, which leaves Microsoft with no record of violating U.S. anti-trust law, therefore also leaves at least the initial private plaintiffs with the burden of proving again that which has already been proved. Microsoft has benefitted from one freebie round of litigation blunders they won't repeat. It will have to be cash-rich companies like SUN, ORCL and AOL who could afford to go the five-year distance with MSFT who move forward with litigation. These companies have other things to worry about at this point in the economy. I wonder whether they'll actually go through with it. Again only time will tell. In the mean time I remain convinced that Microsoft will pay no particular attention to the settlement, in terms of modifying its business practices. --QS Edit: I would actually appreciate somebody who is a lawyer answering the question of how and/or whether the findings of fact and law as remanded prior to the settlement can be used in private litigation.