De rechtszaak die Caldera tegen Microsoft heeft aangespannen zal 17 januari beginnen, zo bericht Techweb:
A U.S. district court judge in Salt Lake City has given an unabashed go-ahead for a jury trial in the Caldera vs. Microsoft private antitrust case.Judge Lee Benson has dismissed all eight of Microsoft's motions for summary judgment on antitrust grounds, clearing the path for a trial to begin in Utah on Jan. 17. Benson issued a ruling on four counts late Wednesday. The other four were ruled on earlier this year.
Caldera, the owner of DR-DOS, which tried to compete with Microsoft's MS-DOS, is alleging that Microsoft committed a hodgepodge of illegal acts, including illegal tying, making intentional vaporware announcements, blacklisting developers, and exclusionary licensing. [break] Verder heeft ook The Register een aantal nieuwsartikelen over de rechtszaak gepost: [/break] Microsoft's efforts to block key aspects of Caldera's antitrust suit have now almost entirely run into the sand. US District Judge Dee Benson issued a judgement denying a further four Microsoft motions. Microsoft has been trying for summary judgement of various parts of Caldera's case, but has scored straight zeros, and only has one shot left for the judge to rule on.
In moving for summary judgement Microsoft has basically been asking the judge to rule that there is no case to answer. So by denying the motions, the judge is saying that Caldera has produced enough evidence to suggest that Microsoft may have violated antitrust law in each of the areas. The latest batch of rejections cover claims that Microsoft: created intentional incompatibilities in order to undermine DR-DOS; used spurious error messages to create the perception of incompatibilities, thus making it look as if DR-DOS was broken; excluded DR-DOS developers from the beta of Windows 3.1; and merged DOS and Windows into a single product, Windows 95, in order to destroy competition from DR-DOS and other competitors.
