Excerpts from the Java ruling

Following are highlights of Judge Ronald Whyte's 31-page ruling that Microsoft must alter its version of Java, which is shipped in products such as Windows 98 and Internet Explorer:

• "Since the court finds that Sun is likely to prevail on the merits [of its case] and that it may suffer irreparable harm if Microsoft is not enjoined, a preliminary injunction is hereby issued against Microsoft."

• Microsoft is enjoined from "selling or distributing any operating system or browser product, including Windows 98 and IE 4.0, containing...Java technology...90 days after this order unless such product...passes the [Java] compatibility test suit...."

• "Microsoft shall, within 15 days of this order, notify its customers of this order and the corrective steps to be taken."

• "Microsoft may seek a reasonable extension of the 90-day period provided in...this order upon a good showing of cause."

• "Nothing in this order requires Microsoft to recall any product or [bars Microsoft] from upgrading its products, so long as they do not include additional Microsoft keyword extensions or compiler directives."

• "The court finds that negotiating for or enforcing [certain Java] licensing terms constitutes an unfair business practice. That Microsoft apparently no longers requires its licensees to adhere to such terms and that it plans to abandon its logo licensing program as to Java provides an insufficient basis for denying Sun its requested relief."

• "The court declines to require Microsoft to immediately cease all further distribution of SDKJ 2.0, SDKJ 3.0, and VJ 6.0 in their present forms prior to a trial [because this] would cause significant harm to innocent third-party software developers."