—- quote —-
From: Bill Gates
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 1999 4:36 PM
To: Bob Muglia (Exchange)
Subject: FW: JPP response to your source code question etc….
Why would the Office group be giving out the Office 2000 formats to competitors? To me this seems crazy.
—- end quote —-
Those who do not follow these things may not be aware that in December last year the trial started in the Iowa District Court of case no. CL82311. The Plaintiffs were: Joe Comes, Riley Paint, Inc, an Iowa corporation; Skeffington’s Formal Wear of Iowa, Inc, an Iowa corporation; and Patricia Anne Larsen. The Defendant was Microsoft Corporation, a Washington corporation. Welcome to the wonderful world of the American class action suit.
In this case proceedings did not take long. After a few days of hearings, a 76 page settlement agreement was “made and entered into, subject to Court approval, as of February 14, 2007″. Preliminary approval was given on 18 April and final approval is expected next month. Some details may be found, for example, on Groklaw. Some of the Exhibits are there, but not all - it seems to be a work-in-progress. For a modest fee the exhibits can also be obtained from the Iowa court system.
The exhibits - or some of them - are, of course, the interesting part for those with an interest in minutiae. In particular, my eye fell on Plaintiff’s Exhibit 3078, which includes the email above.
I guess it is heartening to see a CEO so focussed on his shareholders’ interests. Or alternatively, it is encouraging how far MS has moved in the last 8 years - if it really has.
It is worth remarking in passing that you need some stamina to litigate with MS. These proceedings had been going on for some time. I have not pieced together the whole story yet, and probably never will, but this appears to be the last of the original state and federal anti-trust cases against MS.
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