West Virginia is to join Massachusetts in appealing against last
month's decision by US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
in the US government's antitrust case against Microsoft.
Microsoft announced the move as it faced Sun Microsystems in a
pre-trial hearing today (3 December) about whether Microsoft should
be forced to distribute a Sun-authorised version of Java with the
Windows operating system.
The arguments are part of Sun's private antitrust lawsuit against
Microsoft. Sun is asking the court for a preliminary injunction on
the Java issue, in effect asking a judge to require Microsoft to
distribute Sun's own Java plug-in for Windows XP with every copy of
Windows and Internet Explorer, pending the final outcome of the
lawsuit.
Sun filed its lawsuit in March, charging that Microsoft used its
monopoly in PC operating systems to thwart acceptance of Java.
In its pre-trial motions, Sun argues that Microsoft has attempted
to fragment the Java platform by distributing its own Virtual
Machine for Java, which is incompatible with Sun's Java development
products.
However, Microsoft pointed out that in November, in her ruling on
remedies in the US government's antitrust case against Microsoft,
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down a similar request to
include Java with Windows.
Nine states and the District of Columbia were pressing for harsher
remedies than the terms of a settlement between Microsoft and the
US Department of Justice. Kollar-Kotelly issued a ruling on
remedies that largely accepted the settlement's terms.
Kollar-Kotelly rejected the Java remedy as "not good for
competition and, consequently, not good for consumers," said
Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler.
"It gives a court-sanctioned, specific advantage to Sun, and there
are other Java virtual machines out there. Not only does it
circumvent competition with Microsoft, but it circumvents
competition with other companies."
The Sun case and other private cases, including that brought by AOL
Time Warner, are not expected to go to trial until the second half
next year.