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Did you know that the cost of almost every PC sold includes the cost of a Microsoft Windows license, even if the purchaser intends only to use a different operating system on the machine? Or that Microsoft is scheming to have universities force every student to pay for Microsoft software, regardless of whether they actually use it? Microsoft is able to impose these charges (dubbed "the Microsoft tax") because the company is not subject to genuine competition. It's time to repeal the Microsoft This article explains how. The full article can be viewed at http://brain-terminal.com.

IntercontinentalExchange Inc. has filed a suit in the United Stated District Court for the Southern District of New York against the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., (NYMEX) seeking to prevent NYMEX from abusing its monopoly power in the market for trading and clearing North American energy futures contracts and extending its monopoly into the market for over-the-counter (OTC) energy trading. Intercontinental's claim, which was made as part of a counterclaim in an action initiated by NYMEX, asserts that NYMEX's efforts to prevent Intercontinental from using NYMEX settlement prices by claiming that these prices are copyrightable works of 'authorship' represents an...

Judge Explores Sun Challenge of Microsoft By REUTERS BALTIMORE, Dec. 3 — A federal judge hearing Sun Microsystems' private antitrust suit against Microsoft said today that forcing Microsoft to carry Sun's Java software in the Windows operating system could be an attractive remedy. Judge J. Frederick Motz of Federal District Court had tough questions for both companies during opening arguments, but he seemed sympathetic to the idea of letting Sun's Java compete without "the distortions of the market wrought by the violations Microsoft has done." Microsoft dropped Java, a computer language designed to run on various operating systems, when it...

<p>The broad-based antitrust fight against Microsoft Corp. dwindled Friday to Massachusetts versus the software giant, as seven other states announced they would accept the landmark settlement reached by the company and the Bush administration.</p> <p>Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly, one of Microsoft's most outspoken critics, on Friday asked a U.S. appeals court to reconsider tougher sanctions against the software company than those in the settlement. The appeals court has twice sided against the government on important antitrust issues in recent years, even as it agreed that Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly on Windows software.</p>

Microsoft recruits EU investigator loaded with competitors' secrets Trustworthy initiative By Paul Hales: Thursday 28 November 2002, 11:43 AN EU OFFICIAL who was involved in gathering evidence from Microsoft's competitors in the on-going European Commission anti-trust investigation into the software company's monopolistic behaviour is taking time off from his day job to go work for, erm, Microsoft. Detlef Eckert, promised not to reveal confidential commission information to Microsoft during stay at the company, Commission spokesman Per Haugaard told Bloomberg. For its part, Microsoft says Eckert will be involved in developing the company's "trustworthy computing" initiative. He is to enter Voledom...

Microsoft: The States' Last Hurrah by Robert A. Levy The opinion was straightforward. "Harm to 'one or more competitors,' however severe, is not condemned by the Sherman Act in the absence of … harm to consumers." With those words, federal judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly pinpointed the driving force behind the Microsoft antitrust suit – an attempt by Microsoft's disgruntled rivals to use government for competitive advantage. She went on to note that the attorneys general of the nine non-settling states offered "little, if any, legitimate justification" for the remedies they requested, which, for the most part, were "not supported by any...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge handed Microsoft Corp. an enormous victory on Friday, endorsing nearly all of its antitrust settlement with the Justice Department and rejecting harsher penalties sought by nine states. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly warned company founder Bill Gates and other Microsoft executives, however, that she would hold them individually responsible for complying with her instructions. The nine dissenting states, joined by the District of Columbia, had argued that tougher sanctions were needed to restore competition in the computer industry. But the judge said penalties they sought would chiefly benefit the company's rivals. Kollar-Kotelly made a...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaiian Airlines Inc. will lay off about 150 employees, including pilots and flight attendants, over the next several months. The 4 percent work force reduction is in response to continuing unfavorable economic conditions stemming from soft travel demand, the airline said Thursday. About 60 flight attendants also will take voluntary leaves of absence. ``We don't like having to take steps that affect our employees' lives in this way, but the economic crisis we and all airlines are now facing demands aggressive action to maximize efficiency,'' said John W....

Microsoft antitrust decision due Friday By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 31, 2002, 2:43 PM PT update WASHINGTON--A federal judge will disclose Friday whether she has accepted a proposed settlement in Microsoft's long-running antitrust case. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she will release her widely-anticipated ruling at 1:30 p.m. PST on Nov. 1. Kollar-Kotelly indicated she would rule on two matters that have been proceeding on parallel tracks: whether to approve a tentative deal that Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department inked last fall, and what remedies are appropriate in the separate case being pursued...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Three South Carolina landowners filed suit Tuesday against International Paper, alleging the forest products giant violated antitrust laws by conspiring to keep Southeastern timber prices artificially low. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Columbia, seeks three times the amount lost because of the alleged price fixing. The losses were not specified in the complaint. The suit also seeks class-action status against International Paper, among the largest purchasers of harvested pulpwood timber in South Carolina. The action could potentially involve thousands of landowners. "International Paper's illegal conduct has caused landowners in South Carolina and adjacent states...

<p>As if the telecom market meltdown isn't bad enough, the industry now bids to give us a legal shakedown too. It comes in the form of a new strategy marrying two of the most debilitating parts of U.S. law: antitrust and mass tort claims.</p>

Microsoft Exposes More Windows Code Microsoft Corp will expose more Windows source code for public consumption today, this time in compliance with a proposed antitrust settlement. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is making available to third parties 113 protocols used for communication between Windows clients and servers under the Communications Protocol Licensing Program, launched today. Protocols are available in task-focused packs starting at $5 per server. Microsoft refused to provide further price details in public. The Communications Protocol Licensing Program will be followed on August 28, with disclosure of 272 application programming interfaces (APIs) used by five Microsoft middleware applications. The APIs...

Rambus to pursue Dramurai until they're in "death spiral" Attempt to stay FTC antitrust case blocked By Mike Magee: Sunday 21 July 2002, 09:44 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY company Rambus has filed for a stay to prevent the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allegations of antitrust activities based on its appeal in an Infineon trial last year. But the FTC has hit back against the premise and delivered a lengthy rebuttal that its case against Rambus is anything to do with the Infineon case. It appears Rambus may fail to get a stay on the FTC antitrust case against it, which alleges that...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Just before closing arguments in its antitrust case, Microsoft delivered a broadside to one of its bitter software rivals, declaring Tuesday it will stop supporting Sun Microsystems' flagship product by 2004. Microsoft cited Sun's opposition in the case as the reason for the decision to remove support for Sun's Java programming language from future versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system. "The decision to remove Microsoft's Java implementation was made because of Sun's strategy of using the legal system to compete with Microsoft," Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said in a statement. A Sun spokeswoman did not immediately return...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge refused on Wednesday to throw out a lawsuit by nine states accusing Microsoft Corp. of antitrust violations. Microsoft had asked for a dismissal, saying the states could not show specific harm to their citizens and lacked the authority to seek national penalties. "The court concludes that Microsoft's motion is without merit and must be denied," said U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. She agreed with the states' argument that an appeals court already considered whether they have such authority, and did not question it. "With little more than a passing reference, Microsoft implores this court...

Ralph Nader and the Consumer Project on Technology are asking the federal government to take on Microsoft via the pocketbook instead of the courts, by using its purchasing power to solve "security and competition" issues in the software market. In a letter sent to Office of Management and Budget Director Mitchell Daniels on Tuesday, consumer activists Nader and James Love of the CPT ask the government office to spell out exactly how much money the government spends on Microsoft technology. "If you look at antitrust cases, they take a lot of money and they're time consuming. Our way of...

A leader in the push by nine states and the District of Columbia to pursue harsh antitrust remedies in the case against Microsoft Corporation is distributing Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser from his official state website. Readers who visit the website of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal using a browser that identifies itself as something other than Internet Explorer or Netscape are given a modal Javascript error box (screenshot) which says that a "newer" browser is needed to view the page. Clicking on the "OK" button brings readers to a page captioned "*** Please Update your current browser ***" and...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission said Monday it has asked the Justice Department's antitrust division to look into whether the ethanol industry has been engaging in price collusion for the gasoline additive.</p> <p>The FTC's decision was disclosed in a letter to Rep. Doug Ose, R-Sacramento, by the agency's top lawyer, William Kovacic. It came nearly two weeks after Ose turned over to Kovacic at a House hearing documents that Ose said raised questions about whether ethanol companies were colluding on bid prices for European ethanol.</p>

Suit alleges NASCAR monopoly ESPN.com news services High profile attorney Johnnie Cochran is taking on NASCAR, claiming the sanctioning body has a monopoly over stock car racing. The Orlando Sentinel reports that a federal lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Sherman, Texas, on Feb. 13 on behalf of the shareholders of Speedway Motorsports Inc., the parent company of Texas Motor Speedway. The suit claims that NASCAR is a monopoly entity by owning both the governing body and by having controlling interest in International Speedway Corp., the company that operates 13 major auto tracks. That (breaking up NASCAR/ISC) is...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates took the witness stand on Monday, telling a federal judge that antitrust sanctions sought by nine states would cripple Microsoft and set its Windows operating system back 10 years, to the detriment of consumers and the computer industry. Appearing in person for the first time in Microsoft's four-year antitrust battle, Gates warned U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of dire consequences if the judge accepts suggestions that include a version of Windows that can be customized by computer makers and rival software designers. Gates said the nine states threaten Windows' existence as a...