Of course Microsoft would like it's proprietary compression algorithms to be part of the nextgen HD-DVD format. They can then gouge the studios, artists and the public for the use of their IP every time they create, record or enjoy an artwork.
"First, I hope that the final decision will be of greatest benefit to the community at large and not just to the stock-holders of Microsoft". Surely you jest! MS has never been very interested in the community at large (except as a source of revenue) and MS stock is so valuable that their stockholders are not a huge concern.
No, what MS wants is control - of DVD standards, of WWW standards, of recording standards, of processor microcode, and just about anything else you can think of.
For those of you who have not been following the MS/SCO lawsuit:
MS has been worried for some time by the increasing popularity of the Linux operating system. Linux is free software distributed under the GPL
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html - the majority of Linux software is also free and open source under the GPL.
MS (who have a substantial interest in SCO) have not discouraged SCO (who own a part of the UNIX code that Linux is modelled on) from now claiming that Linux contains some UNIX code that belongs to them. [This despite the fact that SCO itself distributes a flavour of Linux under the GPL]
Despite their unwillingness/inability to specify exactly what the code in question is, SCO are now suing IBM (a Linux promoter) for $3bn and are threatening to sue all companies using Linux if they do not licence this unspecified code. Despite widespread legal opinion that the claims are groundless, all Linux users (like me) are asked to licence this unspecified (and unproven) code from them for $699 per computer.
EV1Servers.net a hosting company with some 20,000 computers has been (to the great dismay of most of it's customers) the first to agree to this, paying over $1m protection money to SCO for a yet unproven (and probably unprovable) claim. Naturally this improves SCO's very shaky credibility. The fact that EV1Servers.net is currently installing another 30,000 servers with MS software has of course no bearing on their decision to publicly knuckle under to SCO's claims....
There is widespread agreement that SCO will lose in court, so why have they embarked on such a spectacularly expensive form of suicide? Well, SCO was ailing anyway and MS would dearly love to get their hands on UNIX (so they can kill it) and guess who will pick up the pieces at the garage sale? And bye-bye to that pesky Linux too!
The spectacularly rapacious MS have already demonstrated that they are above the law and can buy the DOJ, so why not your DVD's too?