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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (21521)	11/17/1998 8:09:00 PM
From: Benny Baga	Respond to of 24154

>>>Microsoft Must Change Windows 98. I guess the Judge has no compassion for innovation...lol Best Wishes, Benny

To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (21521)	11/18/1998 1:26:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Microsoft Told to Stop Shipments That Violate Contract With Rival nytimes.com The good gray Times on the Java ruling. The thing I missed on this one is that everything so far has been about a preliminary injunction, a real trial is off in the distance. Yesterday, Judge Ronald M. Whyte, who is hearing that suit, ruled that Sun was likely to prove its claim in a trial next year and ordered Microsoft to begin shipping Sun's version of Java within 90 days. If after that time, Microsoft continues to ship its operating system or browser with its own version of Java, it will be in contempt of court. What the heck, Microsoft holds everyone else in contempt, they may as well get a little back. The ruling came as many industry executives had gathered at a major computer trade show in Las Vegas, Nev., known as Comdex. The early reaction to word of the ruling was generally favorable, based on the assumption that the eventual effect of the decision would be to encourage a single, industry-standard version of Java for which software developers could write programs. "A single Java standard is what the industry needs," said Eric Schmidt, the chief executive officer of Novell Inc., a maker of software that link computers in networks. Mr. Schmidt was Sun's chief technology officer at the time Sun introduced Java in 1995 as a language designed specifically for software that runs on the Internet. In his 31-page ruling, Judge Whyte based his preliminary injunction on the his judgment that Sun was likely to "prevail on the merits" in its suit. The dispute between Microsoft and Sun focuses on whether the 1996 contract allowing Microsoft to license Java technology -- which was gaining a strong following in the industry -- also allowed Microsoft to tailor the Java language for use with its own software. Microsoft argued that its fine tuning merely improved the performance of Java, but Sun countered that Microsoft's real agenda was to undermine a challenge to Microsoft by co-opting it. This tactic was described in the antitrust trial last week by an executive for the Intel Corporation, who quoted a Microsoft executive as saying, "embrace, extend and extinguish." It always disappoints me that Ballmer's "Embrace and Demolish" never caught on. The above line is alliterative, but not as succinct. In his ruling, Judge Whyte wrote that Sun has "demonstrated a reasonable likelihood" that the contract "does not authorize Microsoft's extension of the Java language and its corresponding modifications to the Java language compiler." Sun, among other things, took issue with Microsoft's licensing policies for distributing software that includes Microsoft's modified version of Java. Microsoft's licensing deals, according to Judge Whyte, require its business partners to exclusively distribute Microsoft's Java-based technologies. "The court finds that negotiating for or enforcing the above-mentioned licensing terms constitutes an unfair business practice," Judge Whyte wrote. "Microsoft does not argue that these licensing provisions bear any utility which outweighs the harm asserted by Sun." Dang, the judge doesn't hold with standard Microsoft business practice. He Just Doesn't Understand. Cheers, Dan.