For a few days it seemed that one of the largest anti-monopoly cases in the world was going to draw quietly and unspectacularly to its conclusion.
In the middle of a battle over purported monopolistic machinations by Microsoft, the US Justice Department agreed to an out-of-court settlement that, in the eyes of independent observers, lets the company off rather lightly.
But nine of the 18 states involved in the proceedings refused to endorse the proposed settlement, and their refusal will necessitate a new round in the years-old judicial process. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly intends to discuss her reservations about prolonging the settlement at the beginning of next year.
PHOTO:BLOOMBERG NEWS
Microsoft then came up with an offer to pay the litigation costs of the nine states if they would sign by the middle of next week. But some, such as Iowa Governor Tom Miller, have already said they will do no such thing.
The US Justice Department now finds itself in a tough position, facing harsh criticism. The Department's lawyers appear to some to have been outmaneuvered by Microsoft, and the complicated technical details of the agreement seem to give the software maker enormous freedom to continue their prior patterns of behavior.
And the State Attorneys General and Microsoft's competitors aren't the only ones making such observations. Many independent observers concur.
"This settlement amounts to the government taking a dive," says Timothy Bresnahan, the chief economist of the Antitrust Division of the Clinton administration.
US President George W. Bush's choice for leader of the Antitrust Division, Charles James, denies having made the deal without consulting with his own department's lawyers. Many of them had spent years pursuing this case. "Reports that I made a back room deal with Microsoft are patently false," he claims.
Most observers agree, however, that without a change of government in Washington, the settlement would never have come about. During his campaign for the presidency, Bush made no secret of his intention to keep the country out of Microsoft's competitive battleground.
For his part, James had proclaimed his intention to follow the case as diligently as possible. Nevertheless, the Department of Justice recently announced that it was dropping its long-standing attempts to split the company.
The poor state of the US economy and an aggressive lobbying campaign by Microsoft may have been the triggers that encouraged the US Justice Department to put the case to rest. Without the ballast of a legal proceeding weighing it down, industry leader Microsoft may be able to pull the troubled computer field out of its crisis.
The individual states are still rallying behind the flag of the consumer, however. To be sure, some of this activism has been spurred by Microsoft's competitors located in these states, who pay taxes and contribute to local politicians' political campaigns.
"Not only is the settlement just full of loopholes, but it also allows Microsoft to dictate its own fate," says Tom Reilly, the Attorney General of Massachusetts. "We intend to continue the trial," reports Reilly's Connecticut colleague, Richard Blumenthal.
"I am confident that once the judge sees the flaws and gaps in this current settlement, she will elect to impose her own changes in order to strengthen it," says California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer. This sort of ending would be fuel for the fires of the Justice Department's critics, who do not buy the argument that Microsoft is not in need of strict regulation.
Even if the US prosecutors of Microsoft eventually succeed in bringing the proceedings to an end, the monopoly accusations against Microsoft will not die quickly. The European competition protection commission is also investigating whether Microsoft exploited its monopoly power. The investigation will go on regardless of what happens in the US, the commission said in Brussels.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS