Microsoft foes urge antitrust punishment
C|Net | at | by Mike
In court documents released Thursday, the Consumers for Computing Choice and the Open Platform Working Group asked for permission to intervene in the case so they could appeal the settlement between Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department.
Robert Lande, a law professor at the University of Baltimore who specializes in antitrust, said he was puzzled by the groups' attempts to intervene in the case. "You've got to have cognizable harm in order to have standing to appeal something," Lande said. "I can't even guess as to their theory."
In December, two ardent Microsoft foes funded by competitors such as Sun Microsystems and Oracle--the Computer and Communications Industry Association and the Software and Information Industry Association--began a similar attempt to inject themselves into the case to appeal Kollar-Kotelly's decision. Under the Tunney Act, a federal judge must determine that such an antitrust settlement is "in the public interest."