To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (22814 ) 3/1/1999 2:01:00 PM From: Charles Hughes Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 24154
I would say denying the obvious over and over makes successful appeal less likely. Remember, this is the sweetheart judge for MSFT. The one who was appointed to be more 'reasonable' after the original judge was dismissed for criticizing MSFT and wanting to go beyond the velvet gloves original consent decree. Now they have tried to make a fool of him. They have convinced not just one but two judges that they are sitting in the court room giving testimony the judges obviously find incredible. It is exactly this behaviour that the appeals court will have a hard time with, however tame and politically motivated they may be. (I imagine losing the Sun case will have a side effect here regarding the credibility of that email witness as well.) Judges also have a lot of latitude. And the witness ignored instructions to stop testifying on matters the judge was not questioning him on. I think another way of looking at judicial strictness and leniency here is that nobody is getting tried for perjury on either side. Yet. It is exactly this dissembling, rationalizing, and foot dragging that makes the case for breakup rather than other remedies. They managed to skirt the spirit of the original consent decree, and now they won't even try to look honest in court. Maybe they don't know what looking honest, or giving a candid answer, is like. Probably comes from years of stored up arrogance from just being MSFT. Being really really rich means the emperor has clothes even if apparently butt-naked, right? This judge is like the little boy who just points out that the emperor appears to be naked, and insists on that point, even though the emperor's vizer keeps arguing that he is dressed in the finest silks, cloth beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, invisible only to the retarded. This could all be part of a strategy that views only two outcomes as good: Total victory in court with no restrictions and the benefits that implies, or mandated breakup with all of the benefits that alternative implies. No half measures would be welcomed by MSFT, So why not deny the obvious? In that case, if true, both intelligence and arrogance are at work. Chaz