Microsoft files response to govt. The judge overseeing closing arguments in the Microsoft antitrust trial on Tuesday compared the software developer to John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, suggesting that, like Standard, the company could be heading for a break up by the courts. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson drew the parallel in response to Microsoft's claim that its copyright over the Windows operating system for personal computers gave it rights to control the way companies distributed it. I don't see the distinction. But Warden insisted that copyright laws enacted by Congress protect Microsoft's actions.
Many legal observers consider the trial's outcome crucial for the future of the high-tech industry.
In addition to affecting the future of the world's most valuable company, it could also shape the way high-tech companies do business for generations to come. Jackson's comments suggested little has changed in his thinking since he issued his Nov. 5 findings of fact. It's hard to read. Jackson is approaching his conclusions of law with real caution, lest his enthusiasm for the government's case lead him to write a decision that would be overturned on appeal. That order dealt largely with technicalities in an earlier case.