Mass. Appeals Microsoft Case Alone

“Massachusetts on Friday appealed the settlement in the Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O antitrust case, splitting from a group of nine states that had been seeking tougher sanctions against the software giant. ‘We are prepared to go our own way,’ Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly told a news conference. ‘There was nothing in the deal that would change Microsoft’s business practices in any substantial way.’ West Virginia is the remaining state in the group of nine that thought the pact negotiated by the U.S. Justice Department was too weak. It expects to announce its decision on Monday. Massachusetts’ appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia will drag out the already 4-1/2-year-old case. But Reilly said there were important principles at stake. ‘The (settlement) deal ignored Microsoft’s ill-gotten gains, did nothing about safeguarding competition in new technologies, and was filled with loopholes and exceptions,’ he said. ‘We believe that a remedy must send a message that breaking the law does not pay,'” reports Reuters. Read more here.