IP: MS lawyer calls settlement critics "whines", says they'd "confiscate MS' Intellectual Property"

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47336-2002Mar6.html

 
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? Microsoft Outlines Next Move in Antitrust Case (Mar. 4, 2002)
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? Interested Parties Weigh In on Proposed Microsoft Settlement (Jan. 31,
2002)
? AOL Sues Microsoft Over Tactics On Browser (Jan. 23, 2002)
? Judge Flunks Microsoft School Plan (Jan. 12, 2002)

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By D. Ian Hopper
AP Technology Writer
Wednesday, March 6, 2002; 12:59 PM


The Justice Department set out to prove Wednesday that its antitrust
settlement with Microsoft is a bird in the hand and better than what it
reasonably could have expected if it had gone back to court to seek tougher
penalties.

Philip Beck, speaking for the government, told U.S. District Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly that a federal appeals court radically narrowed the scope of
Microsoft's wrongdoing, making it difficult for the government to seek
stronger penalties against the software giant.

Getting more "would have been an uphill battle that likely would have been
resolved against us," said Beck. He argued that the settlement still goes
further than what the appeals court decided was Microsoft's legal liability.

<snip>

Microsoft lawyer John Warden called critics of the settlement "whines" and
that the they seek "a grab bag of personal advantages for Microsoft
competitors."

They "would redesign Microsoft's products, confiscate Microsoft's
intellectual property ... and extend this case into markets that it has
nothing to do with."

<snip>

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