Microsoft and Department of Justice Complete Antitrust Settlement More Freedom for PC Vendors; States May Seek Tougher Rules Eric Grevstad
Mon 11/5/01 -- The U.S. Department of Justice has issued a proposed final judgment in its antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp., prohibiting the software giant from punishing PC makers who install non-Microsoft products or making it harder for other software firms' products to work with Windows, but stopping far short of remedies discussed earlier, such as a breakup of the company.
Described by the DOJ as tough and effective and by Microsoft as fair and reasonable, the settlement places no limits on Microsoft's ability to bundle its own Web browser, media player, instant messaging client, or other tools with its operating system, but stipulates that such tools must be uninstallable via the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel -- and that Microsoft, in addition to offering uniform, publicly listed pricing to all PC vendors, cannot retaliate against or punish (i.e., threaten to stop selling Windows to) firms who choose to preinstall other programs such as AOL's browser or Real Networks' player.
An independent, three-person panel, to be based on the Microsoft campus with full access to the company's accounting ledgers, records, personnel, and source code, is to make sure that creators of such programs -- dubbed "non-Microsoft middleware" -- have the same access to Windows application programming interfaces (APIs) as Microsoft's in-house developers. The panel will sit for five years, with a two-year extension added at the court's discretion.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly must review the proposed settlement under the Tunney Act, and the attorneys general of the 18 states that have been pursuing the antitrust action have asked her permission to study the judgment until Thursday before deciding whether to join the DOJ or seek possibly tougher sanctions on their own.
Critics are calling the proposed remedy barely a slap on the wrist, with loopholes ranging from the possibility of recurring pop-up screens asking, "Are you sure you wouldn't rather use Windows Media Player?" to an exemption stating that Microsoft need not disclose its APIs relating to antipiracy, software licensing, digital rights management, encryption, or authentication systems -- the keys to its ambitious online media, Passport, and .Net campaign to move from dominator of the desktop to tollkeeper of the Internet.
