CDR: Re: Is Judge Jackson backing away from Microsoft breakup?

[jim bell]

----- Original Message -----
From: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
Subject: Is Judge Jackson backing away from Microsoft breakup?

> Judge Jackson's comments from last week:
> http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/09/30/0150210

Quote from article above:
---
Trying to undo his reputation as a ferocious supporter of high-tech
regulation, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson on Thursday revealed the real
reason for his ruling against Microsoft. It didn't have anything to do with
Microsoft's market share or Jackson's apparent disdain for Bill Gates. The
reason, according to Jackson, was "Microsoft's intransigence." Huh --
Microsoft gets slammed in the stomach by the long arm of the law for being
stubborn? Since when were judges supposed to take things personally? At
least Jackson admitted that his decision may be far from reasonable.
"Virtually everything I did may be vulnerable on appeal," he told a
conference. Thank goodness for checks and balances.
=================================

This case stank to high heaven:  The "fast-tracking" it was put on made that
obvious.  IBM's '69 case took 13+ years before it was killed. Interestingly,
the subsequent 10 years proved that far from being an
unassailable monopoly, IBM's hold on the market was fleeting.   I think
we'll discover that the only purpose of the MS case was to twist a few arms
in order to get government leverage on the computer market.  Didn't work.

Jim Bell