MS is declared a monopoly by judge

As Microsoft's historic anti-trust court battle with the US Department of Justice continues, a judge has stated that the software giant does hold a monopoly in the computer operating systems market.

In his "findings of fact", District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson declared that Microsoft "stifled innovation", and that through its conduct towards competitors, the company has "demonstrated that it will use its prodigious market power and immense profits to harm any firm that insists on pursuing initiatives that could intensify competition against one of Microsoft's core products".

Judge Jackson added that this "deters investment in technologies and businesses that exhibit the potential to threaten Microsoft. The ultimate result is that some innovations that would truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason that they do not coincide with Microsoft's self-interest."

Judge Jackson stopped short of saying Microsoft violated US anti-trust laws, but it is expected this will be his conclusion. .

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