Word: microsoft
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...they may not get what they want. Jackson's vaguely phrased order merely told Microsoft to let PC makers remove Explorer's visible manifestation--that big blue e--from their desktops, not to erase all traces of Internet-related code from Windows, which by now may be impossible. Microsoft knew this and could have just asked Jackson to clarify his order...
...that is not Bill Gates' style. Better, he figured, to take Jackson at his sloppy word, appeal his order and let the results illustrate the court's ignorance. "It seemed absolutely clear to you," Jackson asked Microsoft V.P. David Cole in court, "that I entered an order that required that you distribute a product that would not work. That's what you're telling me?" Cole's stone-faced reply: "In plain English...
...measure of Microsoft's almost refreshing naivete that these guys actually thought plain English might cut it inside the Beltway. For while Gates' semantic hairsplitting may have been technically accurate, in p.r. terms it was painfully misguided. The media gasped at Microsoft's brinkmanship, and that $1 million-a-day fine Klein asked for last fall now loomed like a juicy apple ripe for Jackson's picking...
...other words, Gates had been guilty of foolhardy grandstanding after all. Last Thursday, with closing arguments set to begin, the chairman chose retreat. "I am pleased to advise the court that we have reached [an agreement that] settles the dispute on the compliance," announced Microsoft lawyer Richard Urowsky. "We believe this order will achieve all the relief the United States sought," echoed Justice attorney Phillip Malone. The judge donned his glasses. "And that," he said, "concludes our business...
Well, not quite; the jousting just reconvened on the courthouse steps. "This is a very important victory for consumers and innovators," Klein exulted, adding that the latter would no longer "be snuffed out by Microsoft's... monopoly power. That's the way capitalism works in America...