Judge Says Microsoft ‘Kneecapped’ Rival Sun
Microsoft Corp. hobbled Sun Microsystems Inc. the way supporters of figure skater Tonya Harding “kneecapped” skating rival Nancy Kerrigan before the 1994 Olympics, said the judge overseeing an antitrust case here against the world’s leading software company.
U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz made the comparison Thursday as he challenged Microsoft’s argument that it shouldn’t be forced to include Sun’s Java programming language in Windows, the operating system software that runs more than 90% of the world’s personal computers. Sun is seeking that remedy as compensation for harm it says Microsoft inflicted on Java.
Motz is reviewing Sun’s request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent Microsoft from distributing Windows without Java. He is overseeing more than 60 suits by consumers and competitors against the company.
The judge questioned testimony by University of Chicago economist Kevin Murphy, who said Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun should be limited to seeking monetary damages. Sun, which wants at least $1 billion in damages, sued after a federal judge ruled that Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft broke the law.
“There are a lot of people who would rather play for the championship” than collect monetary damages, Motz said.
The judge likened Java to Kerrigan, who was clubbed in the knee while practicing for the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1994. As a result, he said, “Nancy Kerrigan is deprived of the opportunity to compete on two good knees.”
Murphy, who testified for Microsoft, said forcing Windows to include Sun’s version of Java would distort the market. Just because the market “was tilted one way, tilting it the other way now doesn’t compensate, it doesn’t correct” an imbalance, he said.
Motz responded: “It’s not for me to engineer the market but to unengineer the market to take out the distortion that Microsoft put in.”
The judge also said Java might be stronger if Microsoft had honored a 1997 agreement with Sun to distribute the software instead of giving computer users a version that is incompatible with Windows. Microsoft denies breaking the agreement with Sun, and the companies settled their dispute out of court.
On Nasdaq, Microsoft shares fell $1.20 to $55.34 and Sun shares slipped 15 cents to $3.61.
