http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46619,00.html
Microsoft Still Faces Feds' Regs
By Declan McCullagh (declan_at_wired.com)
2:00 a.m. Sep. 7, 2001 PDT
WASHINGTON -- Microsoft has dodged a breakup, but it may soon become
the software industry's first regulated monopoly.
Justice Department officials announced Thursday they had abandoned
their original goal of carving Microsoft into halves, saying they now
want a complex set of "conduct-related" regulations to govern the
company's future behavior.
The goal, according to the government, is to avoid the legal wrangling
involved in defending a breakup order and to "streamline the case with
the goal of securing an effective remedy as quickly as possible."
Those regulations, described in a court filing by the government in
April 2000, set prices for current and future versions of Microsoft
Windows and impose severe restrictions on the company's day-to-day
operations. Originally designed to last only until a breakup happened,
the Justice Department now hopes to make them permanent.
If U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agrees, the government
regulations that would take effect include:
Microsoft can't sell computer makers discounted copies of Windows,
except for foreign-language translations. It must open a "secure" lab
where partners and competitors may examine the previously internal
Windows specifications.
Microsoft can't give discounts to hardware or software developers in
exchange for promoting or distributing other company products. For
instance, Microsoft would be barred from inking a discount deal with
CompUSA to bundle a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator with a
Microsoft joystick.
Microsoft must monitor all changes it makes to all versions of
Windows and track any alterations that would slow down or "degrade the
performance of" any third-party application such as Internet browsers,
e-mail client software, multimedia viewing software, instant messaging
software, and voice-recognition software. If it does not notify the
third-party developer, criminal sanctions would apply.
State and federal government lawyers can visit Microsoft's campus
"during office hours" to "inspect and copy" any document, e-mail
message, collection of source code or other information they find
relevant.
That's not all. On Thursday, the Justice Department said in a
statement that it wanted to "evaluate whether additional
conduct-related provisions are necessary" since the breakup wouldn't
happen.
[...]
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Received on Sep 07 2001
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