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Microsoft Freedom to Innovate Network
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Redmond, WA
98052-9724
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Holdout States Keep on Litigating, But Only Competitors Would Benefit
On Monday, March 18, 3½ months after reaching a tough but fair settlement with the Department of Justice and nine states, Microsoft was back in court facing the states who refused to join that bipartisan agreement.
No one stands to benefit from this continued assault but Microsoft's competitors, who will testify for the states and, Microsoft will show the court, helped draft the states' sanctions.
A report in National Journal's Tech Daily ("States Face Internal Feuds Over Microsoft," March 18, 2002) details further dealings between the states and some Microsoft competitors, including campaign contributions to Attorneys General Bill Lockyer (California) and Carla Stovall (Kansas). [Full story at www.microsoft.com/freedomtoinnovate.]
On Tuesday, Associated Press ("Judge in Microsoft case refuses to accept testimony on penalties from Netscape chief Barksdale") reported that Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly limited former Netscape Chief Executive James Barksdale's testimony, noting that "Barksdale could not speak authoritatively about whether penalties sought by the states would work better than those agreed to by the federal government." [http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=530&u=/ap/20020320/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_antitrust_192]
States Ignore Court of Appeals, Seek Extreme, Punitive Sanctions
The states' competitor-drafted "remedies" proposal goes so far beyond the Court of Appeals' liability ruling that it would cause even more devastation than break-up, not only to Microsoft but to the entire industry and especially consumers. It would force Microsoft to create thousands of versions of Windows and transfer billions of dollars of its intellectual property to competitors. This would severely damage Microsoft's ability to innovate and compete and would cost the industry an estimated $80 billion over the first three years, according to economist Stan Liebowitz (http://www.actonline.org/getIT ).
Tell Holdout AGs DoJ Settlement is Fair, Tough - It's Time to Move On
By refusing to join the bipartisan agreement with the DoJ, the holdout states -- California, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Utah and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia - prolong the litigation that has threatened innovation, hurt consumers, stalled the industry and slowed the economy for nearly four years now.
It is important that you let your public officials know what you think about the states' sanctions. You can contact them here at the Freedom to Innovate Network at www.microsoft.com/freedomtoinnovate/howhelp.aspx.
Thanks again to the thousands of FIN members who have let your public officials know what you think about this matter from the beginning. It is impossible to overstate how important it is that your voice continues to be heard.
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