Word: browser
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...added that he felt Microsoft's decision todistribute its web browser, Internet Explorer, forfree was clear evidence of antitrust violations...
...support its case, Justice has amassed reams of testimony from Gates' business partners about strong-arm tactics and restrictive licensing deals. But perhaps the most damaging evidence comes from Microsoft's own words: smoking-gun memos, e-mails and offhand remarks in which executives admit that since their browser is unlikely to win market share on its own merits, they had better tie it to Windows. "We are going to cut off [Netscape's] air supply," a Microsoft vice president allegedly brags at one point. "Everything they're selling, we're going to give away for free...
...Early handicapping from antitrust experts gives Klein high odds in the first part of his case--proving Windows is a monopoly, duh--but rates his chance of overall victory as fifty-fifty at best. "Justice will have to show Microsoft has achieved a dangerous amount of control of the browser market," notes George Mason law professor William Kovacic, a former Federal Trade Commission antitrust enforcer. "That's a fairly demanding test...
...remedies are raising eyebrows even higher. Klein, effectively, wants Microsoft either to ship Windows without Explorer or to bundle Navigator as well; allow PC makers to modify their desktops at will and remove Explorer if they so desire; and let online services that have Windows deals promote the Netscape browser anyway. Microsoft responds that stripping Explorer from Windows 98 would mean rewriting significant parts of an operating system that contains 18.2 million lines of code, thus greatly hampering its release--a dubious definition of consumer protection...
Even so, it's got to be good news for Netscape, whose share of the browser market continued to fall as of last January, from 63 percent of the market to 54 percent. Internet Explorer nearly doubled its presence in the same period, from 21 percent...