Microsoft likely to win appeal in Java case
WinInfo | at | by Mike
A federal appeals court that is hearing Microsoft's appeal in the Java case suggested yesterday that it will overturn the preliminary injunction that would have required the company to bundle Sun's Java technology in Windows XP immediately. Well, maybe "suggested" isn't a strong enough word. "I don't think the district judge had a clue," said U.S. Circuit Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, one of the three judges who heard arguments from Microsoft and Sun this week. When a Sun attorney tried to argue his case, he was quickly cut off by the judge, who spared no chance to get a few digs in at Judge Frederick J. Motz, the judge that issued the original ruling. "It seems to me the District Court missed it all," he said. So does this mean Motz's ruling will be tossed aside? Not necessarily; certainly, in the past we've been fooled by the language used by various judges working Microsoft court cases. But Motz's ruling is so controversial I can't imagine that it's going to withstand any scrutiny.