Private MS Lawsuits To Be Heard In One Court
A panel of federal judges has reportedly ordered that 27 private antitrust lawsuits filed in 17 different federal jurisdictions against Microsoft Corp. will be handled by a single court in Baltimore.
A report in today's Wall Street Journal said that US District Judge J. Frederick Motz will coordinate pretrial activities for the suits. The judiciary panel decided that centralizing the lawsuits, at least for the present, will "promote the just and efficient conduct of the litigation" because testimony by experts is expected to "overlap substantially."
Yale Dropped from Metallica Lawsuit
Yale University's network officials shutdown access to Napster shortly after the announcement of the lawsuit was made. "Last Friday, we began to block Napster around the clock in response to the lawsuit and until we can clarify the legal issues surrounding Napster," stated Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman.
Metallica's agents decided to drop Yale as a defendant after the school decided to block Napster, and they also stated that they will not seek further damages. Metallica released a statement on Wednesday, which said, "We appreciate the prompt and responsible reaction by Yale University in dealing with the gross violations of copyright laws and the protection of intellectual property."
Indiana University and the Metallica Lawsuit
In response to news of the Metallica lawsuit, University of Indiana's Technology Policy officer Mark Bruhn told students today that if university council advised the banning of Napster, they would do so - no questions asked. While he refused to comment on the RIAA and the Napster lawsuit, as well as the recent conviction of AOL in a German court of fascilitating the piracy of music, he did say that Indiana had not yet received any legal documents concerning the matter, and that the university would continue to monitor the situation. His main focus this morning was to warn students of the dangers of downloading MP3s, saying "I hope those of you who do not know the seriousness of the situation leave here worried." Keep checking back as the story develops.
MicroStrategy To Withdraw Stock Sale As Lawsuits Mount
Data-mining software developer MicroStrategy Inc. has filed a request with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to withdraw its follow-on stock offering, as its share price takes a licking on Wall Street and its legal department gears up for an onslaught of lawsuits.
MicroStrategy filed its RW (request for withdrawal) with the SEC earlier today.
DeCSS Source Included in Lawsuit Filings
Word has begun to spread around the Net today that the source for DeCSS has been included in the public court records filed by the DVD Copy Control Association against Webmasters and distributors of the DVD decryption application. Once again proving the lack of understanding that DeCSS itself is not the problem but rather the protocol itself, the source is now available for public consumption and will undoubtedly lead to more decryption programs. After a California Superior Court issued an injunction Friday barring the distribution of DeCSS, this mistake may turn things around for proponents of DeCSS and civil liberties. A copy of the lawsuit filings may be viewed at http://cryptome.org/dvd-hoy-reply.htm.
Lawsuit Against iCraveTV Turns 'Nasty'
William Craig, the beleaguered 49-year-old president of Toronto-based iCraveTV, whose company faces a lawsuit by a group of heavyweight US and Canadian entertainment and sports programmers, said he has been thrown a "knuckleball" by the litigants, who reportedly have unearthed an outstanding divorce warrant against him.
A report in today's Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper said that Craig will appear in a Pittsburgh court, where the suit has been lodged, next Friday, but may risk arrest on the unanswered warrant.
Lawsuits fly at Microsoft
Redmond, Wash. (eFront News) – A flurry of lawsuits are expected to be filed against Microsoft Corp. in the next few weeks after U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found that Microsoft was a monopoly as a matter of law. Judge Jackson’s findings are setting a precedent for other civil actions that can be based on the fact that Microsoft has a monopoly in the desktop operating system market.
One lawsuit, filed Monday in San Francisco, is a class action suit under California law charging that Microsoft used its monopoly power to overcharge customers purchasing Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows 98 products. The lawsuit also claims Microsoft products face little competition among other desktop operating systems. Plaintiffs are expected to argue for a refund of the difference between what their experts say Microsoft would have charged for Windows if there were competition in the market and the actual price.
Microsoft is expected to have a strong legal defense to any possible civil actions against the company. One of Microsoft’s expected arguments is that Windows competitor IBM OS/2 costs nearly twice as much as Windows 95 or 98, although it does have a slightly different market. In addition, there is the possibility that an appeals court could overturn Judge Jackson’s findings, as they have done in the past with other anti-Microsoft rulings.
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