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Microsoft Gets a Break (2/3/98)
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In today's episode of "Redmond Justice," the tide starts to turn as a federal appeals court rules that Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig must cease and desist his investigations as a "special master" in the Microsoft-Department of Justice conflict. The Washington Post has the gory details. Lessig, you may recall, was appointed by Judge Thomas Jackson to study the "complex technological issues" defining whether a web browser is an application or part of an operating system. (Hey Judge, got three minutes? We'll happily explain it to you.)
Microsoft requested that Lessig be pulled from the case, because 1) they claimed he was biased against them, as supposedly revealed in Lessig's personal email, and 2) they take issue in general with the prospect of a private citizen having so much power in this case. Jackson refused their request, calling their accusations of Lessig's bias "defamatory." So Microsoft appealed, and-- surprise!-- after only one working day, the appellate court ordered that Lessig suspend his investigation until at least April 21st, when the court will hear Microsoft's argument as to why the whole case should be thrown out of court.
The appellate court gave no reason for its order, though it's only a temporary measure until the April court date. The Justice Department does not plan to appeal the decision, according to the Computer Reseller News, and news.com reports that having his special master suspended means the ball's back in Judge Thomas' court (so to speak). Most people expect him to lay low until the April hearing, which is good news and bad news; it means that "Redmond Justice" may go on hiatus soon, but at least it'll be back next season-- and given how long it seems this case will run, chances are good for the show getting renewed for future seasons, as well.
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SceneLink (419)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 2/3/98 episode: February 3, 1998: Rumors of big announcements that never come to pass continue to prove that you can have smoke where there's no fire. Meanwhile, Apple contemplates cutting the lifeline of the last of the cloners, and Microsoft catches a break in the latest episode of "Redmond Justice..."
Other scenes from that episode: 417: Rumors Who Cried Wolf (2/3/98) As expected, all of Apple met this morning to hear Steve Jobs talk about the State of the Apple. The Mac-using world held its breath and teetered on the edge of its seat, ready for anything: speculation ran wild in some circles about whether Steve would take the CEO post himself, or introduce another to step into his shoes; other factions expected to hear that the newly-rechristened Filemaker, Inc... 418: The Tears of a Clone (2/3/98) Cloning's not dead in the Mac world, right? Sure, the two biggest players are gone-- Power Computing sold its Mac OS license back to Apple and fell apart after trying to launch a foray into the Wintel market, while Motorola basically said "the hell with this" and quit in a tizzy...
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