[svlug] chalk up another one...

[Ze'ev Maor]

Yet another victory for widely accepted standards over M$
embrace'n'extend:

November 18, 1998

Judge Rules Against Microsoft
In Battle With Sun Over Java

By LEE GOMES 
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


A federal judge ruled against Microsoft Corp. in a high-stakes legal
battle with Sun Microsystems Inc., ordering Microsoft to rewrite parts of
the Windows 98 operating system and other products to comply with Sun's
version of the Java programming language.

The preliminary injunction by Ronald M. Whyte, U.S. District Judge in San
Jose, Calif., is a resounding victory for Sun in the hard-fought contract
dispute with archrival Microsoft. The judge ruled there was a strong
likelihood that Sun would prevail in a full trial in its suit for
copyright infringement and unfair competition it filed against Microsoft
last year.

As a result, he gave Microsoft 90 days to rework both its Windows 98 and
its Internet Explorer browser to make them compatible with Sun's Java
specifications. The judge also ordered Microsoft to rewrite the Java
development kit it provides to software programmers.

However, the ruling doesn't require Microsoft to recall existing versions
of any of those products.

While separate to the Justice Department trial against Microsoft now
underway in Washington, the decision could nonetheless bolster the
government's case against the software giant. That's because federal
antitrust regulators have argued that Microsoft's attempt to snuff out the
threat posed by Java was another abuse of the company's monopoly power.

Java was marketed by Sun as a kind of lingua franca for the computer
industry, making it easier to develop programs that could work without
modification on any computer or operating software. Because that would
tend to reduce the influence of Microsoft's Windows system, Java became a
rallying cry for most of the software company's opponents, notably
International Business Machines Corp., Netscape Communications Corp. and
Novell Inc.

Sun alleged that Microsoft was improperly trying to splinter the movement
by introducing technology that tied Java to Windows. The ruling could help
make Java a viable alternative by keeping the strains unified, industry
executives said.

Microsoft group Vice President Paul Maritz said the company was
"disappointed" in the ruling, and predicted Microsoft would prevail when a
full trial is held on the issue, which is expected to occur next year.

Mr. Moritz said late Tuesday afternoon that because Microsoft was still
studying the decision, it did not yet know how it would comply with it. In
the short term, Microsoft said, it was likely to include Sun's technology
directly in its Windows products. But the company said that for the longer
term, it was considering other options, such as its own "clean room"
version of Java that did not rely on any Sun technology. Mr. Moritz said a
final decision on the issue would be made later this week.

Alan Baratz, head of Sun's Java division, called the ruling "a win for
Java licensees, for developers and for consumers." He also held out an
olive branch to Microsoft, saying "this is an opportunity for Microsoft to
rejoin the Java community," promising Sun's help if it chose to do so.

Java has been a contentious issue between Sun and Microsoft almost from
the day back in 1995 when Microsoft decided to license Java from Sun and
incorporate the software throughout its products. That decision surprised
many people in the computer industry, because Sun had been marketing Java
as an alternative to Microsoft's dominant Windows software. Since then,
both Sun and Microsoft have battled in the court of public opinion about
whose version of the language better suited the computer industry.

The actual legal fight between them turned on two highly technical issues
involving Microsoft's implementation of Java -- both of which Judge Whyte
decided in Sun's favor.

One involved the protocols by which a Java program would interact with a
program written for Windows, such as one using the "C" programming
language. Both Sun and Microsoft claimed they had the right to define
these protocols. Microsoft, in fact, said surrendering this right was
tantamount to giving Sun control of its software "crown jewels."

It is this set of protocols that Microsoft must now somehow fix in both
its Windows 98 operating system and its Internet browser. The actual
changes aren't likely to be noticed by any users, since few if any
real-world Java programs actually make use of the disputed protocols.
Similarly, the decision is not expected to have any financial impact on
Microsoft. It is nonetheless a rare and humbling legal defeat for the
company, putting it in the humiliating position of having to redo its
flagship product at the behest of its most vocal critic.

The other legal issue involved whether Microsoft could create unique and
noncompatible improvements to Java in the programming kit it sells to
software developers. In this case, Judge Whyte ruled that Microsoft must
from here on out warn developers that using the Microsoft additions might
result in Java programs incompatible with Sun's.

No date has been set for the full trial. But when one occurs, Sun said
Tuesday, it will ask that the judge's order be made permanent. It also
said that it will seek unspecified monetary damages from Microsoft.


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-			    |						  |
- Ze'ev Maor		    | "We all have a little Daemon inside...      |
- gmaor at tx.technion.ac.il   |  ...Waiting to come out and become a kernel"|
-			    |						  |
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