More than 1,500 consumers, businesses, professors and high
technology experts write the US Department of Justice
supporting actions to stop Microsoft from monopolizing the
market for Internet browsers.
Fmi: James Love 202.387.8030 | love[_at_]cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology | http://www.cptech.org
Today the Consumer Project on Technology (CPT) presented the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) with a letter signed by more than 1,500
consumers, businesses, professors and high technology experts, asking
the government to stop Microsoft from monopolizing the market for
Internet browsers. The letter states:
Microsoft should not be permitted to drive
Netscape and other products out of the market
by offering the Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE)
for free; and Microsoft should not be permitted to
bundle the MSIE with its operating system, or
integrate the MSIE with the operating system in ways
that are unavailable to other firms.
The full text of the letter is on the Internet at http://www.essential.org/antitrust/ms/browserletter.html (no period).
The letter to DOJ was circulated on the Internet for several weeks prior to the DOJ announcement of its Antitrust action against Microsoft for violations of a 1995 consent degree.
The current DOJ antitrust action against Microsoft addresses some but not all of the issues raised in the letter. DOJ is asking the court to prevent Microsoft from requiring computer manufacturers to install Microsoft's Internet Explorer on new computers, and to make it easier for consumers to remove the MSIE once it is installed.
A key issue in both the litigation and the petition to DOJ concerns Microsoft's attempts to integrate the MSIE into its Windows operating system. Microsoft's new active desktop for MSIE4.0 provides very deep integration with the Windows 95 operating system. The current Windows 95 file manager (now called the Window's Explorer) is replaced by the browser, making it unnecessary for consumers to launch Netscape or any other browser to view Web pages. Microsoft says it plans to make this integration mandatory for Window 98, the version of Windows that will be shipped next year. CPT and others are concerned that the MSIE will have unequal access to undocumented aspects of the Windows operating system, making it increasingly difficult for competitors to match the performance or functionality of the MSIE.
At present Microsoft is spending perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and promote its MSIE, which it gives away. By integrating the MSIE into Windows 98, so that you cannot buy Windows without MSIE, and by guaranteeing universal installation of its browser on all new computers sold with the Windows operating system, Microsoft is seeking to monopolize the browser market.
CPT and others believe the browser market is a particularly important application, since it acts as a platform for many other software applications and information services. After Microsoft began offering its MSIE for free, there has been large reduction in the number of firms who offer alternative browsers. Today Netscape is the only firm currently spending a significant amount of money to develop a competitive product. If Microsoft succeeds in driving Netscape and other firms from the browser market, Microsoft will be in a position to exercise enormous control a wide range of standards for Internet publishing and electronic commerce.
The letter to DOJ says that consumers benefit from competition, particularly from greater innovation and more consumer choice. For example, the letter expressed concern that the lack of current competition in the browser market, plus the predatory pricing by Microsoft, has limited consumers choices for features of browsers that would enhance consumer privacy, or permit consumers to better manage advertising or other commercial content.
The letter sent to DOJ said the issue of predatory pricing was: "not a general complaint about free software or even promotional offers," but rather a specific complaint about a particular practice which concerns Microsoft's efforts to "extend its current OS monopoly power to the platform for a new generation of Internet applications." The current DOJ litigation does not specially address the issue of predatory pricing of the browser.
These and other Microsoft issues will be discussed at a November 13 and 14 Conference in Washington, DC, hosted by Essential Information. Information about "Appraising Microsoft's Global Strategy" is on the web at: http://www.appraising-microsoft.org/ (no period).
Fmi: James Love 202.387.8030; love[_at_]cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Background documents about the Microsoft Antitrust case:
DOJ's has a number of documents from the 1995 court Microsoft case on the Web at:
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases3/micros0/micros0.htm
One of the better documents about the current case is the Supplemental Memorandum to Civil Action 94-1564, apparently filed on October 20, 1997, titled, "Memorandum Of The United States In Support Of Petition For An Order To Show Cause Why Respondent Microsoft Corporation Should Not Be Found In Civil Contempt," which is at:
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases3/micros2/1237.htm
Microsoft's press office has some information on the Web at:
http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/10-decreeq&a.htm
See also http://www.essential.org/antitrust/microsoft
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Mon Mar 26 2007 - 00:35:27 GMT