The European Union has also charged Microsoft with abusing its monopoly. In October, Microsoft filed its written response, although the details were not made public. In their 4-year-old investigation, European regulators have maintained that Microsoft's abuse of its monopoly power is "ongoing," suggesting that the Windows Media Player should either be separate from Windows or Microsoft should be forced to bundle competitors' media players as well. The European Commission also wants Microsoft to give its competitors in the low-end server market more technical information to allow them to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers.
In October, Microsoft reached settlements that totalled about $200m (£113m) in six class-action lawsuits in the District of Columbia, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee. Earlier in the year, Microsoft announced a $1.1bn settlement with California. It also has settled nine other similar suits, leaving five still in the courts. The software giant said it has successfully derailed class-action lawsuits in 17 other states, either by having them dismissed or by convincing courts not to grant class certification.
In September, Microsoft announced a settlement of an antitrust suit filed by one-time operating system rival Be. Microsoft did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, in which Be was to receive $23.2m after attorneys' fees. Founded by former Apple Computer executive Jean-Louis Gassee, Be developed an operating system that won acclaim from a small base of hobbyists but never achieved commercial success.
In May, Microsoft paid $750m to Time Warner under a wide-ranging settlement that also called for the companies to jointly cooperate on software distribution and digital media. As part of the deal, Time Warner dropped an antitrust complaint filed by its Netscape Communications unit in January 2002 against Microsoft. Time Warner also agreed to a seven-year, royalty-free license of IE and a long-term, nonexclusive licence to use Microsoft's Windows Media 9 software for digital media.
In June, a federal appeals court tossed out most of a preliminary injunction that required Microsoft to carry Sun Microsystems' version of an interpreter for the Java programming language. The court upheld a requirement that Microsoft cease distributing certain copies of its own Java Virtual Machine (JVM), saying the company "exceeded the scope" of a January 2001 licence agreement with Sun. That agreement settled a lawsuit between Microsoft and Sun over Sun's argument that Microsoft's JVM unfairly altered how computers would use Java.
From the outside looking in, a resolution for these lawsuits -- as well as the new one -- seems ridiculously easy: Just split the difference. But that's heresy in Redmond land. This is more than a simple case of compromise-resistant DNA floating around campus. When it comes to developing Windows, Microsoft will go to the mattresses to resist any impairment of its right to do what it wants.
So far it has been a successful, albeit expensive strategy -- one that looks to get even costlier in the weeks and months ahead.
Comment Many businesses have given Vista a wide berth; Microsoft must focus on five areas to make sure Windows 7 doesn't suffer the same fate, argues TechRepublic's Jason Hiner
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