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December 22, 1997
Justice Asks For Contempt, Fines Against Microsoft
Says vendor tried to defeat purpose of court order
Justice Department lawyers were reacting to Microsoft's appeal of Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's temporary injunction against the software vendor's practice of tying the sale of its Windows operating system to its Internet Explorer Web browser. In particular, the department was incensed by Microsoft's solution: for PC makers to strip IE code from Windows 95 themselves, which would most likely render the operating system inoperable, or for them to use a two-year-old version of Windows 95 minus IE but with none of the bug fixes or
improvements made in the intervening period. Microsoft also asserted that PC vendors could continue to ship Windows 95 bundled with IE.
The Justice Department argues that a choice between the offending version containing IE and one of two versions that are unviable in the marketplace is no choice at all. "Micro-soft has gone from tying its products to tying the hands of its vendors," says Joel Klein, U.S. assistant attorney general for antitrust enforcement.
Leaping at the opportunity, Netscape Communications last week urged users to remove IE and install Netscape Navigator. Netscape says it has been in talks with a number of PC vendors recently in a pitch to replace IE on their hardware.
The Justice Department is asking that the judge begin fining Microsoft $1 million a day if it continues to defy the court's order. That fine would not take effect until 10 days after the judge makes such an order, however.
Additionally, the department asked the judge to order Microsoft to notify the gover
nment at least 30 days in advance of shipping any new operating system or browser products, to ensure that the company is complying with the temporary injunction.
Microsoft officials said, however, that the company is proceeding with development of Windows 98, the version of the operating system that tightly integrates the browser directly into the user interface. Microsoft began shipping the third and final beta version of Windows 98 last week, and says the product is on target for availability in June.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that attorneys for nine states met recently in Chicago to discuss their own investigations of Microsoft.
nimosity between the Department of Justice and Microsoft escalated last week, as Justice asked the judge in the Microsoft antitrust case to hold the vendor in contempt for what it called "a naked attempt to defeat the purpose of the court's order."
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