We remember the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse as the end of the Civil War, despite the fact that Confederate forces remained in the field for several weeks thereafter. The announcement by AT&T and Deutsche Telekom (DT) that they have told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismiss their application to transfer T-Mo to AT&T “without prejudice” is rather similar.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, in an antitrust cast brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, ruled yesterday that H&R Block could not purchase another major manufacturer of tax-preparation software.

 The following is attributed to Harold Feld, legal director for Public Knowledge:

 “This case proves that antitrust law is alive, well and relevant to AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile.  The judge in the H&R Block case ruled that one of the largest companies in a competitive industry could not buy out a competitor, particularly when that competitor is seen as a maverick within that industry.

 “The judge agreed with the Justice Department that a market dominated by the two biggest companies is not sufficiently competitive.  We agree.  Whether the market is tax-filing software or the wireless industry, the principles are the same.

Much like the great and powerful Wizard Oz, AT&T’s spin machine relies on smoke and illusion combined with a powerful voice and a chorus of believers to maintain the belief in its awesome power and infallibility. But the fact that the “Great and Powerful Oz” is merely an old fraud with a handful of tricks and a magnificent PR campaign is increasingly clear to anyone who, like the intrepid little dog Toto, ignores the illusion and pulls back the curtain.

In March 2011, AT&T made known its intention to acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. The announcement drew immediate scrutiny. According to analysts, "The combined companies would have 43% market share overall, and 44% of the postpaid market." Were the two companies allowed to merge, only three companies would dominate the U.S. wireless market, a market that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already found be growing increasingly less competitive.

Today's podcast is full of a month's worth of news including AT&T/T-Mobile, Net Neutrality rules, Authors Guild and orphan works, the Hotfile case and automated copyright takedown notices, and updates from the Open Video Conference, the Open Hardware Summit (including this talk), and Makerfaire.

Oh, and of course this.

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One of the annoying little memes that's been going around regarding the AT&T/T-Mobile antitrust suit is that Judge Ellen Huvelle, because of her past ruling against the government's antitrust action in US v. SunGard Data Systems, is somehow predisposed to find against the government in antitrust cases generally. This makes as much sense as saying that because the government didn't prove its case against one burglar that all future burglars are going to go free.

The latest AT&T ploy to convince the gullible that it's planned acquisition of T-Mobile remains TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY ON TRACK and that everyone should just ignore the minor little tiff it has with the Department of Justice (and 7 State Attorneys General) involves pretending to pick potential rivals as recipients of any divestiture agreement. I say "pretending" because AT&T has either conveniently forgotten that such transfers need FCC approval or has reassured everyone involved that the FCC will rubberrstamp any settment AT&T negotiates.

Just before the Justice Department announced that it was suing to block AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile, AT&T promised regulators that it would bring 5,000 call center jobs back into the country, if only the merger were approved. Amazon, facing the prospect of paying sales tax in California, promised it would bring 7,000 jobs if only they didn't have to pay those taxes. After noting these parallel promises, Marketplace host Jeremy Hobson quipped, that he promised to create 10,000 jobs if he could be exempted from taxes—honest!

Last Wednesday, the Justice Department planted a very large nail in the coffin of the AT&T takeover of T-Mobile when it filed a lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit to block the merger.   Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole couldn’t have been more unequivocal about how the Department views the proposed merger: