M icrosoftis plans for leveraging its monopoly power in operating systems to the development market has hit a snag. The company has been issued a final order to include Java with its Windows distributions within 120 days.
The ruling comes in an antitrust lawsuit brought by Sun against the convicted monopolist. Sun accused Microsoft of deliberately halting Java inclusion with Windows in order to use its monopoly power to gain market share for .Net. Because of Microsoftis legal status as a predatory monopolist, such actions by the company face possible restrictions.
The court case is being presided over by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in Baltimore. Last month, Judge Motz issued a temporary injunction ordering Microsoft to begin distributing Java while the case was being decided, but todayis ruling is final. In the legal world, final is not always final, however, and Microsoft is entitled to appeal the ruling. The company has already said that it would immediately do. From a Reuters article:
It requires Microsoft to begin putting Sunis Java into Windows within 120 days. A Microsoft spokesman has said the company will file an immediate appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
Motz issued the order a day after attorneys for Microsoft and Sun finally agreed on details of how Microsoft should comply with the order.
An antitrust lawsuit filed by Santa Clara, California-based Sun charges Microsoft has tried to sabotage Sunis Java software, which can run on a variety of operating systems, not just Windows.
In a Dec. 23 ruling, Motz concluded that Sun had a good chance of winning its case against Microsoft and said he would grant a preliminary injunction forcing Microsoft to include Java in its Windows computer operating system.
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