IP: Why Microsoft would rather fight

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> X-Sender: declan () mail well com
> Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2000 13:29:58 -0400
> To: politech () vorlon mit edu
> From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
> Subject: FC: Why Microsoft would rather fight
>
>
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,35368,00.html
>
> Why MS Would Rather Fight
> by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)
> 9:05 a.m. Apr. 3, 2000 PDT
>
> The collapse of settlement talks in the Microsoft case has depressed 
> the company's stock and set the stage for a starkly pro-government 
> ruling by the presiding judge on Monday.
>
> If U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson releases a decision 
> that condemns the software maker in the same uncompromising terms as 
> nearly everyone expects, it is certain to embolden rivals and 
> encourage a new spate of antitrust lawsuits by private litigants.
>
> So why didn't Microsoft chairman Bill Gates settle this case and 
> relieve his ongoing antitrust migraine?
>
> The mostly likely reason: Gates has been there before. It didn't work.
>
> An earlier settlement Microsoft had with the Justice Department backfired.
>
> The 1994 deal lured Microsoft into a false sense of security. 
> According to one lawyer close to the company, Microsoft's legal 
> department truly believed it had ended its antitrust troubles for 
> good.
>
> But Department of Justice lawyers saw it differently, and sued the Redmond,
> Washington-based firm in late 1997 for allegedly violating the 
> consent agreement.
>
> ...
>
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