Word: doj
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...irony of the past week's convoluted maneuverings is that each side in the biggest antitrust case in two decades knew where its counterpart stood well before the conflict's looming D-day--Microsoft's May 15 deadline for giving its new operating system, Windows 98, to PC manufacturers. DOJ antitrust chief Joel Klein believed that the ways Microsoft uses its Windows monopoly to dominate other markets violate antitrust law, and that the company had to be reined in lest it gain a choke hold on the Internet. Gates felt otherwise, and had long since made it clear that...
...when the DOJ suit was postponed, the state attorneys general who convened at the Justice building were naturally curious to learn why. Klein explained that Gates had called the night before, offering what appeared to be real concessions, including easing restrictions on what PC makers could put on their opening screens. That hardly squared with Gates' longtime obstinance on such matters, but Klein, whose sensitivity to politics and diplomacy would have made him a standout at the State Department, was willing to go the extra mile just in case. The states, however, were determined to maintain strategic independence...
Thus was set the pattern of two tortured days of talks among the three parties in this complex dance: Justice trying to cover every last base before launching one of the biggest antitrust actions ever; Microsoft hoping to learn as much as possible about the DOJ's case without actually surrendering any serious ground; and those state attorneys general, who at the Monday press conference distributed bios along with their press releases, clearly relishing their role as Joel Klein's conscience. "Quite frankly," Vacco confides, "until last week we weren't 100% sure the Department of Justice was going...
...DOJ's proposed 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...
...legal debate this fall will center in part on similar questions: whether the DOJ's remedies would actually prevent consumer harm, as opposed to merely promoting one company's fortunes at another's expense. Asked whether the PC vendor Packard Bell would want to buy Windows at a discount if it didn't include Explorer, a spokeswoman was skeptical. "Would customers want to pay less for a computer without an integrated browser," she mused, "or do they prefer to have an integrated, simple way to surf the Internet?" Microsoft dependents always speak carefully in public, but her implication is clear...