Microsoft ruling glitch

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Ted Bridis <tbridis () ap org>
Organization: The Associated Press
Reply-To: tbridis () ap org
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 2002 22:40:17 -0500
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Microsoft ruling glitch

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54363-2002Nov1.html

Court Posts Microsoft Ruling on Web

By Ted Bridis
Associated Press Writer

Friday, November 1, 2002; 9:41 PM

WASHINGTON -- The landmark decision in the Microsoft antitrust trial was
supposed to remain secret until after financial markets closed, but the
federal court quietly posted the documents on its Web site nearly 90
minutes before the closing bell.

That discovery by some Internet enthusiasts coincided with a flurry of
late-day trading of Microsoft's stock. Its price, which had been falling
most of Friday, ticked up just moments after the court placed on its Web
site the decision that handed Microsoft a huge victory.

Late-day trading peaked five minutes before markets closed, when $90
million worth of Microsoft shares exchanged hands.

The incident meant tech-savvy Web surfers knew the judge's decision
fully one hour before even lawyers for Microsoft and the Justice
Department. A glitch in Internet technology - which was at the heart of
the antitrust trial - contributed to the early disclosure.

"Somebody wasn't thinking," said David Farber, an Internet expert and
former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission.
"They probably uploaded it just to make sure they wouldn't have any
trouble, assuming that no one read it, which was probably naive. They're
going to have to be a lot more careful."

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly had intended to provide
individual, printed copies of her decisions to Microsoft and government
lawyers at 4 p.m., then make her decisions available publicly on the
court's Web site a half-hour later.

Those plans, outlined in advance to lawyers and journalists, are
commonly invoked by judges in major corporate trials and intended to
prevent any manipulation of financial markets.

But electronic timestamps for the court's Internet computer indicate
that the decisions were published at 2:40 p.m. Friday to a location on
its Internet site called "Opinions/2002/Kotelly," which anyone with a
Web browser could reach without a password. The rulings, in seven parts,
were stored under filenames that included "FinalDecree" and
"StateSettlement."

Technicians at the court could have made that location effectively
invisible to visitors with a simple change to their computer software.

Microsoft traded at $52.22 in the moments before the court posted its
rulings; the price climbed as high as $53.12 at 3:40 p.m. - still 20
minutes before anyone was supposed to know the outcome of the antitrust
case - then settled to close at $53.

The first public announcement that the Microsoft decisions were
available early came at 3:33 p.m., when an editor at Slashdot.org, a Web
site for technology experts, published them.

A spokesman, Jamie McCarthy, said an unidentified Slashdot reader sent a
tip about the files on the court's Web site at 3:09 p.m. Records showed
that 4,026 people viewed the information on Slashdot before 4 p.m., when
the judge's decisions were handed to lawyers in Washington.


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To unsubscribe or update your address, click
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=125275&user_secret=1aa8f2d6

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/