Justice Department drops Microsoft case
Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, September 5, 2001
By Karen Gullo
Associated Press
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration, reversing the Clinton White House legal strategy against Microsoft, told the software manufacturer today it no longer seeks to have the company broken up.
The Justice Department also said it will not pursue the bundling issues in its protracted antitrust suit against the software giant.
The agency is taking these steps to obtain “prompt, effective and certain relief for consumers,” it said in a press release.
The release follows a judge’s order for the two sides to produce a joint status report by Sept. 14.
The government told Microsoft that it does not intend to pursue a breakup and will drop the bundling issue to “facilitate consultations” in the joint report, the department said.
Microsoft spokesman Vivek Marma said, “We remain committed to resolving the remaining issues in the case.”
The about-face wasn’t totally unexpected. At the time of his confirmation hearings to be attorney general, John Ashcroft hedged when asked repeatedly by senators about the government’s commitment to pursuing the lawsuit against Microsoft.
Ashcroft for the most part said that was among a host of issues he would need to review.
Today, his department said that since an appellate court agreed that Microsoft illegally maintained a monopoly over the market for operating systems, the government “believes it has established a basis for relief that would end Microsoft’s unlawful conduct, prevent its recurrence and open the operating-systems market to competition.”
Pursuing the tying claim would only prolong the proceedings, the department said.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who originally heard and decided the case, had ordered a series of restrictions against Microsoft last year, then rescinded them soon after the case was appealed.
Among those restrictions, Jackson ordered Microsoft to divulge to outside developers technical information about how its operating systems interact with its software. Those developers would be able to pick apart the computer code without cost to improve their understanding of it and make their own products.
Microsoft also would no longer have been able to control what icons would appear on the Windows operating screen when a user bought a computer. A person buying a computer from a distributor such as Dell or Gateway would have seen a desktop that looked nothing like the usual Windows desktop.
Howard University law professor Andy Gavil said the restrictions could affect the upcoming Windows XP operating system, which has been finished by Microsoft programmers but has not yet hit store shelves.
“All of these little things really have to do with how XP is being prepared and marketed,” Gavil said.
On Thursday, the Justice Department said it will ask the court for time to investigate developments in the industry since the trial concluded and “to evaluate whether additional conduct-related provisions are necessary, especially in the absence of a breakup.”
Microsoft just rolled out the final Window XP code to computer manufacturers. Some critics have charged that the rollout is evidence that the company continues to use its dominance to muscle into new markets.
Windows XP includes many new features that are currently standalone products made by competitors, including a program for storing digital photos and an instant messaging system.
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