A federal appeals court reversed the breakup of Microsoft Thursday and ordered that a new judge decide the landmark case. It was a major victory for the embattled software maker. The appeals court ruled that US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson improperly conducted himself in the case, leaving himself open to the appearance he was biased against Microsoft. ``We vacate the judgment on remedies, because the trial judge engaged in impermissible ex parte contacts by holding secret interviews with members of the media and made numerous offensive comments about Microsoft officials in public statements outside of the courtroom, giving rise to an appearance of partiality,'' the court said. ``Although we find no evidence of actual bias, we hold that the actions of the trial judge seriously tainted the proceedings before the District Court and called into question the integrity of the judicial process,'' the court added. The ruling was unanimous, by a 7-0 vote. Jackson ruled Microsoft had engaged in anti-competitive practices by packaging its Windows operating system with its Explorer Web browser. He concluded the company was an illegal monopoly and ordered the software giant broken into two as a penalty. By vacating the ruling, the appeals court sent the case back to the lower court but ordered that a different judge handle the decision on how to punish Microsoft. （Agencies） | 美國一家聯邦上訴法院6月28日推翻了將微軟一分為二的判決，并命令由另外一名法官代替杰克遜來擔任此案的主審官。這對陷入壟斷案的微軟公司來說是一個重大勝利。
 | | 微軟創始人比爾·蓋茨正在就聯邦上訴法院推翻拆解微軟的裁決一事發表意見 |
聯邦上訴法院裁定地方法院法官托馬斯-潘菲爾德-杰克遜在處理這場官司過程中一些舉動不太恰當，給人留下了他對微軟持有偏見的印象。判決說："由于杰克遜法官同外界進行了法律不允許的接觸，比如同媒體進行秘密談話，在法庭外公開對微軟做出了許多攻擊性的評論，因此給人留下一種對微軟持有偏見的印象，因此我們推翻原判，以進行補救。" 判決書還說："盡管還沒有事實證據能夠證明他確實對微軟懷有偏見，但我們認為杰克遜法官的行為嚴重玷污了地區法院的聲譽，使人們對司法程序的公正性產生懷疑。" 這份判決書是以聯邦上訴法院的7名法官一致同意通過的。 去年，杰克遜判定，微軟將視窗操作系統與網絡瀏覽器捆綁在一起銷售的行為屬不正當競爭，構成了對軟件市場的壟斷，因此決定將微軟一分為二。 上訴庭推翻（地方法院）原判后，把這個案件重新發回地方法院，不過要由另一名法官裁決將對微軟采取什么樣的懲罰。 (中國日報網站譯) |
Updated: 2001-07-04 01:00
