Score a point for Microsoft in its court case. No, not that court case. No, not that one either. Or those four over there, or that half-dozen on the shelf, or any of those in the big pile in the corner. Specifically, we're talking about the legal battle between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, the folks who brought us Java, the programming language that promised to erase platform boundaries and let developers write software that runs on any kind of computer running any kind of operating system. (You can imagine how concepts like that could cause high-ranking Microsoft officials to lose more than a little sleep.)

Microsoft, you'll recall, decided to play hardball with Java; after licensing the technology, they allegedly "contaminated" it with extensions to the code base that only worked on Windows, effectively monkeywrenching the whole cross-platform intent of the programming language. If developers wrote Java software using Microsoft's additions, then it would only run on Windows systems-- and that's presumably exactly how Microsoft planned to protect its vast Windows market share from a hot technology that may otherwise have rendered Windows irrelevant. Unsurprisingly, Sun cried "Shenanigans!" and sued-- and a judge sided with them early on by issuing a preliminary injunction ordering Microsoft to "fix" its Java implementations to comply with Sun's standards.

Microsoft appealed the injunction, though, and the Appeals Court just "vacated" it; according to a Sm@rt Reseller article, the court "agreed with Sun that Microsoft has likely violated its Java contract," but didn't understand how Microsoft's transgressions could be classified as actual "copyright infringement" as they were apparently called in the injunction. It's a small victory for Microsoft-- but it might not last very long. The injunction now goes back to Judge Whyte for clarification, at which point it could easily be reinstated, but hey, after the Severe Pummeling™ the government dished out in "Redmond Justice," even the small victories are cause for celebration for Microsoft's legal team.