Computerworld - A federal judge last Friday denied all but one of Microsoft's motions to toss out antitrust claims brought by a company that sells Xbox 360 accessories armed with video game cheats.

In her order, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte also quashed Microsoft's attempt to tie Apple's legal victory over a Mac clone maker to its battle against Staffordshire, England-based Datel Design & Development Ltd.

Laporte granted just one of the six requests Microsoft made in last January when the company's lawyers asked her to dismiss multiple antitrust allegations by Datel. The maker of video game memory boards and controllers first filed antitrust charges against Microsoft in November 2009.

"We're gratified that the case will proceed and Datel looks forward to reestablishing the benefits of competition in the accessory market for all Xbox 360 users," said Daniel Asimow, an attorney with San Francisco-based Howard Rice, the law firm representing Datel.

Datel's lawsuit accused Microsoft of violating federal and state antitrust and unfair business practice laws by requiring Xbox owners to download an October 2009 update that disabled unauthorized third-party memory cards or game controllers, like the ones made by Datel. "Microsoft's... upgrade is... intended to foreclose competition from Datel in the sale of other aftermarket Xbox accessories and add-ons, including gamepad controllers, through the implementation of predatory technological barriers," Datel charged in November.

Laporte allowed five of Datel's six claims to proceed, knocking out only the charge that Microsoft monopolized the online gaming market with its Xbox Live.

Noting numerous precedents, including cases that have gone to the U.S. Supreme Court, Laporte rejected that claim, saying that Datel had not shown it was harmed by Xbox Live. "Plaintiff introduced its memory cards in May 2009, but alleges that Defendant dominated the market since 2006," Laporte said. "Thus, it does not appear that blocking Plaintiff's products in October 2009 was a necessary step in Defendant's alleged market dominance, which is alleged to have started much earlier."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176037/Judge_tosses_Microsoft_s_Psystar_antitrust_defense?taxonomyId=17

The article goes on a bit longer but it's worth a read if you're interested in the case.  I hadn't seen it posted so I thought I may as well, plus being a slightly negative article its probably better posted by a 360 fan.  All in all I think the case is really important as I think the big 3 have too much control over accessories in particular these days and would like to see the courts force them to be a bit more open.  I know they offer licensing for certain products but charging ridiculous fees that stop third parties being able to compete only hurts us the consumers and benefits Microsoft (in this particular instance).

Sorry for the crap layout, I suck at making threads

I haven't really been following this but playing devil's advoate I can see that Microsoft adopted this pricing scheme of low priced consoles and high-margin accessories to remain competitive/profitable in the market. If this becomes a new standard that third-parties can manufacture and undercut those accessories then the price of consoles will probably go up next generation. At the moment I believe there's one console manufacturer that's been profitable this generation.

I am glad the judge threw out the Xbox Live monopolization. That would effect more than just MS in this case, but open up others to similar litigations (IE I am being harmed by PSN, Steam, etc so I cannot sell my product).

I hope this all works out in the end, allowing everything to be more open. If you do not like crappy (most of them are) 3rd party controllers...do not buy them. This would be like Apple making an Ipod with a proprietary headset (they did try this and scrapped it before they released the first Ipod...good thing for us too).

They should be able to have standards tho (of what 3rd parties CAN do on their systems) and I hope those standards can stay in place.

There are so many things I don't understand when it comes to laws and stuff.

MS has to pay money, because they are bundling Windows with their browser. MS allows other browsers as well. You can download ayn browser you like for free and it will work perfectly with Windows. MS practices were illegal, they have to pay.

Apples iPods require iTunes. You have to use it, there is no option. There is no other software that works. Apple did the right thing. Everything is just fine.

That was just one exampel.

For me and my understanding the Xbox360 is a Microsoft product. They should be allowed to do whatever they like to do with it. They paid billions to develop and distribute the console, so they should be allowed to say that they don't like unauthorized hardware.

Maybe I didn't read it correctly... but are they saying that the judge (basically) wants to allow third parties to make accessories with built in "cheats" ?

@Feylic,the judgement is about microsoft stopping 3rd party accessories from working,it just so happens Datel sell cheats systems as well .

I think as long as they go through the xbox360 Microsoft certification for 3rd party devices so as to make it usable under certification than every thing would be fine. though If Datel is not being allowed Certification anyway no matter what than that would be a problem. Other companies have gone through this process for certification, so this case may be unique.