Windows locked, witness says

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Microsoft keeps a stranglehold on computer makers by not letting consumers buy computers without also paying for Microsoft’s Windows operating system, a manufacturer testified Monday.

Gateway executive Anthony Fama, a witness for the nine states asking for strong penalties against Microsoft for antitrust violations, said new Microsoft contracts keep computer makers from giving customers a choice of operating systems.

Microsoft says the provision helps fight piracy of Windows, Fama said. "This rationale, however, ignores the possibility that customers may have legitimate licenses for an operating system that they obtained from other sources."

Fama said Microsoft’s uniform license, which applies to all major computer makers, would force either Gateway or its customers to pay the Windows royalty, even if the customer already has a copy of Windows or wants to use a different operating system.

The nine states want U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to force Microsoft to create a stripped-down version of its flagship Windows software that could incorporate competitors’ features. The states also want Microsoft to divulge the blueprints for its Internet Explorer browser.

The federal government and nine other states settled their antitrust case against Microsoft last year with lesser penalties.

The original judge in the case, Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered Microsoft broken into two companies after concluding it illegally stifled its competitors. An appeals court reversed the penalty, but not the conviction, and appointed Kollar-Kotelly to determine a new punishment.

Earlier Monday, Michael Tiemann of Red Hat, distributor of the competing Linux operating system, accused Microsoft of taking ownership of open technology standards in an attempt to frustrate other companies.

Tiemann said Microsoft adds extensions to critical communications methods that computers use to transmit security information, print, and perform other tasks. Those extensions are proprietary to Microsoft, he said, and despite recent actions, Microsoft has not been forthcoming in releasing details of those changes.

"Some disclosure does not mean complete disclosure or substantial disclosure," Tiemann said.

Linux is based on a open-source model in which software developers create programs through collaboration and share their software blueprints. Microsoft, like most software firms, jealously guards its technical data.

Tiemann said Red Hat would benefit from a penalty proposed by the states that would force Microsoft to offer its dominant Office productivity software to other companies so that it could be translated for use on competing operating systems.

Tiemann said that, to his embarrassment, some Red Hat employees have to use Windows to run Microsoft’s Office programs in order to share documents with other firms.