Citizendia

United States v. Microsoft, 87 F. Supp. 2d 30 (D.D.C. 2000) was a set of consolidated civil actions filed against Microsoft Corporation on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and twenty U. Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past Court cases either in special series of books called reporters Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Events 1152 - Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine. Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department S. states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor. Joel I Klein is Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States with over 1 The plaintiffs alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales. In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text images videos music games and other information typically located on a The issue central to the case was whether Microsoft was allowed to bundle its flagship Internet Explorer (IE) web browser software with its Microsoft Windows operating system. Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE) commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Bundling them together is alleged to have been responsible for Microsoft's victory in the browser wars as every Windows user had a copy of Internet Explorer. The term "browser wars" refers to the competition for dominance in the Web browser marketplace It was further alleged that this unfairly restricted the market for competing web browsers (such as Netscape Navigator or Opera) that were slow to download over a modem or had to be purchased at a store. Netscape Navigator and Netscape are the names for the proprietary Web browser popular in the 1990s and the Flagship product of the Netscape Opera is a Web browser and Internet suite developed by the Opera Software company Underlying these disputes were questions over whether Microsoft altered or manipulated its application programming interfaces (APIs) to favor Internet Explorer over third party web browsers, Microsoft's conduct in forming restrictive licensing agreements with OEM computer manufacturers, and Microsoft's intent in its course of conduct. An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM is typically a company that uses a component made by a second company in its own product or sells the product of the second company

Microsoft stated that the merging of Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer was the result of innovation and competition, that the two were now the same product and were inextricably linked together and that consumers were now getting all the benefits of IE for free. The term innovation means a new way of doing something It may refer to incremental radical and revolutionary changes in thinking products processes or organisations Competition is a rivalry between individuals groups nations or animals for territory or resources Those who opposed Microsoft's position countered that the browser was still a distinct and separate product which did not need to be tied to the operating system, since a separate version of Internet Explorer was available for Mac OS. Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of Graphical user interface -based Operating systems developed by Apple Inc They also asserted that IE was not really free because its development and marketing costs may have kept the price of Windows higher than it might otherwise have been. The case was tried before U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. The United States district courts are the general Trial courts of the United States federal court system. Thomas Penfield Jackson (born January 10, 1937) was a United States District Court Judge for the District of Columbia. The DOJ was initially represented by David Boies. David Boies (born March 11, 1941) is a Lawyer and Chairman of Boies Schiller & Flexner.

Contents

History

Government interest in Microsoft's affairs had begun in 1991 with an inquiry by the Federal Trade Commission over whether Microsoft was abusing its monopoly on the PC operating system market. The Federal Trade Commission ( FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act The commissioners deadlocked with a 2-2 vote in 1993 and closed the investigation, but the Department of Justice opened its own investigation on August 21 of that year, resulting in a settlement on July 15, 1994 in which Microsoft consented not to tie other Microsoft products to the sale of Windows but remained free to integrate additional features into the operating system. Events 1192 - Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shōgun and the De facto ruler of Japan. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) In the years that followed, Microsoft insisted that Internet Explorer (which first appeared in the Plus! Pack sold separately from Windows 95) was not a product but a feature which it was allowed to add to Windows, although the DOJ did not agree with this definition. Microsoft Plus! is a commercial Operating system enhancement product by Microsoft.

Trial

Bill Gates testifying August 27, 1998 See external links for full video
Bill Gates testifying August 27, 1998 See external links for full video

The trial started on May 18, 1998 with the U. Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan Year 1998 ( MCMXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar) S. Justice Department and the Attorneys General of twenty U. S. states suing Microsoft for illegally thwarting competition in order to protect and extend its software monopoly. Later, in October the US Justice Department also sued Microsoft for violating a 1994 consent decree by forcing computer makers to include its Internet browser as a part of the installation of Windows software. During the antitrust case it was revealed that Microsoft had threatened PC manufacturers with revoking their license to distribute Windows if they removed the Internet Explorer icon from the initial desktop, something that Netscape had requested of its licensees.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was called "evasive and nonresponsive" by a source present at a session in which Gates was questioned on his deposition. If you would like to experiment with Wikipedia please copy [1] He argued over the definitions of words such as "compete", "concerned", "ask", and "we". [2] BusinessWeek reported, "Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance have been directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of E-mail Gates both sent and received. "[3] Intel Vice-President Steven McGeady, called as a witness, quoted Paul Maritz, a senior Microsoft vice president as having stated an intention to "extinguish" and "smother" rival Netscape Communications Corporation and to "cut off Netscape's air supply" by giving away a clone of Netscape's flagship product for free. Steven McGeady is a former Intel executive best known as a witness in the Microsoft Antitrust Trial. Paul Maritz (born 1955 is CEO of VMware Corporation (NYSEVMW and a past senior executive at Microsoft. Netscape Communications (formerly known as Netscape Communications Corporation and commonly known as Netscape) is an American computer services company The Microsoft executive denied the allegations. [4]

A number of videotapes were submitted as evidence by Microsoft during the trial, including one that demonstrated that removing Internet Explorer from Microsoft Windows caused slowdowns and malfunctions in Windows. In the videotaped demonstration of what Microsoft vice president James Allchin's stated to be a seamless segment filmed on one PC, the plaintiff noticed that some icons mysteriously disappear and reappear on the PC's desktop, suggesting that the effects might have been falsified. James "Jim" Edward Allchin (born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1951 is a former executive at Microsoft, where he was responsible for many of the [5] Allchin admitted that the blame for the tape problems lay with some of his staff "They ended up filming it -- grabbing the wrong screen shot," he said of the incident. Later, Allchin re-ran the demonstration and provided a new videotape, but in so doing Microsoft dropped the claim that Windows is slowed down when Internet Explorer is removed. Mark Murray, a Microsoft spokesperson, berated the government attorneys for "nitpicking on issues like video production. "[6] Microsoft submitted a second inaccurate videotape into evidence later the same month as the first. The issue in question was how easy or hard it was for America Online users to download and install Netscape Navigator onto a Windows PC. Microsoft's videotape showed the process as being quick and easy, resulting in the Netscape icon appearing on the user's desktop. The government produced its own videotape of the same process, revealing that Microsoft's videotape had edited out a long and complex part of the procedure and that the Netscape icon was not placed on the desktop, requiring a user to search for it. Brad Chase, a Microsoft vice president, verified the government's tape and conceded that Microsoft's own tape was inaccurate. [7]

When the judge ordered Microsoft to offer a version of Windows which did not include Internet Explorer, Microsoft responded that the company would offer manufacturers a choice: one version of Windows that was obsolete, or another that did not work properly. The judge asked, "It seemed absolutely clear to you that I entered an order that required that you distribute a product that would not work?" David D. Cole, a Microsoft vice president, replied, "In plain English, yes. For other David Cole's see David Cole (disambiguation David D We followed that order. It wasn't my place to consider the consequences of that. "[8] Princeton University professor Edward Felten presented a modified version of Windows from which he claimed the Internet Explorer function had been removed. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. Edward William Felten (born March 25, 1963) is a professor of Computer science and public affairs at Princeton University. On cross-examination, he was guided through a sequence of steps that produced a fully functional Internet Explorer window.

Microsoft vigorously defended itself in the public arena, claiming that its attempts to innovate were under attack by rival companies jealous at its success, and that government litigation was merely their pawn. A full-page ad run in The Washington Post and The New York Times on June 2, 1999 by The Independent Institute (which received donations from Microsoft as well as other companies[9]) delivered "An Open Letter to President Clinton From 240 Economists On Antitrust Protectionism. The Washington Post is the largest and most circulated Newspaper in Washington D Events 455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) " It said, in part, "Consumers did not ask for these antitrust actions - rival business firms did. Consumers of high technology have enjoyed falling prices, expanding outputs, and a breathtaking array of new products and innovations. . . . Increasingly, however, some firms have sought to handicap their rivals by turning to government for protection of these cases are based on speculation about some vaguely specified consumer harm in some unspecified future, and many of the proposed interventions will weaken successful U. S. firms and impede their competitiveness abroad. "[10]

Judge Jackson issued his findings of fact[11] on November 5, 1999, which stated that Microsoft's dominance of the personal computer operating systems market constituted a monopoly, and that Microsoft had taken actions to crush threats to the monopoly, including Apple, Java, Netscape, Lotus Notes, Real Networks, Linux, and others. Events 1499 - Publication of the Catholicon in Treguier ( Brittany) Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar) Then on April 3, 2000, he issued a two-part ruling: his conclusions of law were that Microsoft had committed monopolization, attempted monopolization, and tying in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, and his remedy was that Microsoft must be broken into two separate units, one to produce the operating system, and one to produce other software components. Events 1043 - Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. The term "monopolization" refers to an offense under Section 2 of the American Sherman Antitrust Act, passed in 1890 Tying is the practice of making the sale of one good (the tying good to the De facto or De jure customer conditional on the purchase of a second distinctive The Sherman Antitrust Act ( Sherman Act, July 2, 1890, ch 647,) was the first United States Federal statute to limit Cartels and

The trial was also notable for the use by both the prosecution and the defense of professors of MIT to serve as expert witnesses to bolster their cases. Richard L. Schmalensee, a noted economist and the dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management, testified as an expert witness in favor of Microsoft. Richard Lee "Dick" Schmalensee is the John C Head III Dean Emeritus and the Howard W An economist is an expert in the Social science of Economics. Frank Fisher, another MIT economist who was Schmalensee's former doctoral thesis adviser, testified in favor of the Department of Justice. Franklyn Wood "Frank" Fisher ( May 16, 1907 &ndash April 23, 1983) was a Canadian Ice hockey player who For animal rights group see Justice Department (JD The United States Department of Justice ( DOJ) is a Cabinet department

Appeal

On September 26, 2000, after Judge Jackson issued his findings of fact,[12] the plaintiffs (to save time) attempted to send Microsoft's appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. Events 46 BC - Julius Caesar dedicates a 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. However, the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal and sent the case to a federal appeals court.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Judge Jackson's rulings against Microsoft. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, known informally as the D This was in part because the Appellate court had adopted a "drastically altered scope of liability" under which the Remedies could be taken, but also due to the embargoed interviews Judge Jackson had given to the news media while he was still hearing the case, in violation of the Code of Conduct for US Judges. In Journalism and Public relations, a news embargo or press embargo is a request by a source that the Information or News The news media refers to the section of the Mass media that focuses on presenting current News to the public [13] Judge Jackson did not attend the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals hearing, in which the appeals court judges accused him of unethical conduct and determined he should have recused himself from the case. [14]

Judge Jackson's response to this was that Microsoft's conduct itself was the cause of any "perceived bias"; Microsoft executives had "proved, time and time again, to be inaccurate, misleading, evasive, and transparently false. . . . Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect. It is also a company whose senior management is not averse to offering specious testimony to support spurious defenses to claims of its wrongdoing. "[15]

However, the appeals court did not overturn the findings of fact. The D. C. Circuit remanded the case for consideration of a proper remedy under a more limited scope of liability. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was chosen to hear the case. Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (born 1943 in New York) is a Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the presiding judge of the

The DOJ announced on September 6, 2001 that it was no longer seeking to break up Microsoft and would instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty. Events 3114 BC - According to the Proleptic Julian calendar the current era in the Maya Long Count Calendar started Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar.

Settlement

On November 2, 2001, the DOJ reached an agreement with Microsoft to settle the case. Events 1570 - A Tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland, killing more than 1000 Year 2001 ( MMI) was a Common year starting on Monday according to the Gregorian calendar. The proposed settlement required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and appoint a panel of three people who will have full access to Microsoft's systems, records, and source code for five years in order to ensure compliance. However, the DOJ did not require Microsoft to change any of its code nor prevent Microsoft from tying other software with Windows in the future. On August 5, 2002, Microsoft announced that it would make some concessions towards the proposed final settlement ahead of the judge's verdict. Events 642 - Battle of Maserfield - Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Bernicia. See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. On November 1, 2002, Judge Kollar-Kotelly released a judgment accepting most of the proposed DOJ settlement. Events 996 - Emperor Otto III issues a deed to Gottschalk Bishop of Freising which is the oldest known document using the name Ostarrîchi See also 2002 (disambiguation Year 2002 ( MMII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. Nine states (California, Connecticut, Iowa, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Utah, Virginia and Massachusetts) and the District of Columbia (which had been pursuing the case together with the DOJ) did not agree with the settlement, arguing that it did not go far enough to curb Microsoft's anti-competitive business practices. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D On June 30, 2004, the U. Events 350 - Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian dynasty, is defeated and killed by troops of the Usurper "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " S. appeals court unanimously approved the settlement with the Justice Department, rejecting objections from Massachusetts that the sanctions were inadequate.

The dissenting states regarded the settlement as merely a slap on the wrist. Industry pundit Robert X. Cringely believes a breakup is not possible, and that "now the only way Microsoft can die is by suicide. Robert X Cringely is the Pen name of both technology journalist Mark Stephens and a string of writers for a column in InfoWorld, the one-time "[16] Andrew Chin, an antitrust law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who assisted Judge Jackson in drafting the findings of fact, wrote that the settlement gave Microsoft "a special antitrust immunity to license Windows and other 'platform software' under contractual terms that destroy freedom of competition. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( UNC, North Carolina, or simply Carolina) is a public, Coeducational Research "[17]

Microsoft's obligations under the settlement, as originally drafted, expired on November 12, 2007. Events 764 - Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. [18] However, Microsoft later "agreed to consent to a two-year extension of part of the Final Judgments" dealing with communications protocol licensing, and that if the plaintiffs later wished to extend those aspects of the settlement even as far as 2012, it would not object. In the field of Telecommunications, a communications protocol is the set of standard rules for data representation signaling authentication and error detection required to The plaintiffs made clear that the extension was intended to serve only to give the relevant part of the settlement "the opportunity to succeed for the period of time it was intended to cover", rather than being due to any "pattern of willful and systematic violations". The court has yet to approve the change in terms as of May 2006. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. [19]

Criticisms of the case

The late Nobel economist Milton Friedman believed that the antitrust case against Microsoft set a dangerous precedent that foreshadowed increasing government regulation of what was formerly an industry that was relatively free of government intrusion and that future technological progress in the industry will be impeded as a result. Milton Friedman (July 31 1912 November 16 2006 was an American Nobel Laureate Economist and Public intellectual. [20]

Jean-Louis Gassée, CEO of Be Inc., which at the time made a competing operating system which eventually folded in the face of Microsoft's dominance, criticized the emphasis on the "packaging problem. Jean-Louis Gassée (born March 1944 in Paris France) was an executive at Apple Computer from 1981 to 1990 " He claimed Microsoft was not really making any money from Internet Explorer, and its incorporation with the operating system was due to consumer expectation to have a browser packaged with the operating system. BeOS came packaged with its web browser, NetPositive. BeOS is an Operating system for Personal computers which began development by Be Inc

Instead, he argued, Microsoft's true anticompetitive clout was in the rebates it offered to OEMs preventing other operating systems from getting a foothold in the market. [21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Gates deposition called evasive - CNET News.com
  2. ^ CNN - Gates deposition makes judge laugh in court - November 17, 1998
  3. ^ 11/30/98 MICROSOFT'S TEFLON BILL
  4. ^ Washingtonpost.com: WashTech - U.S. v. Microsoft Special Report
  5. ^ http://www.chguy.net/news/feb99/demoMS.html
  6. ^ Feds Accuse MS of Falsification
  7. ^ Compaq: It Was All a Big Mix-Up
  8. ^ Microsoft Antitrust Trial C
  9. ^ Winners, Losers & Microsoft Strikes a Sensitive Nerve: Newsroom: The Independent Institute
  10. ^ Open Letter on Antitrust Protectionism: The Independent Institute
  11. ^ U.S. v. Microsoft: Court's Findings of Fact
  12. ^ U.S. v. Microsoft: Court's Findings of Fact
  13. ^ Judiciary Policies And Procedures: Codes Of Conduct
  14. ^ Microsoft Judge Ripped in Court
  15. ^ Judge Jackson Exits Microsoft Discrimination Case
  16. ^ I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The Once and Future King | PBS
  17. ^ The Microsoft Case
  18. ^ Microsoft Consent Decree Compliance Advisory - August 1, 2003 : U.S. v. Microsoft
  19. ^ ATR-SV-DIV401;MDE;15906;7
  20. ^ Policy Forum: The Business Community's Suicidal Impulse
  21. ^ Jean-Louis Gassée on why PC manufacturers don't sell non MS products

Bibliography

External links

Llewellyn H Rockwell Jr (born 1 July 1944, Boston) widely known as Lew Rockwell, is an American Libertarian The Ludwig von Mises Institute ( LvMI) based in Auburn Alabama, is a Libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields Events 1399 - Henry IV is proclaimed King of England. 1744 - France and Spain defeat the "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " Milton Friedman (July 31 1912 November 16 2006 was an American Nobel Laureate Economist and Public intellectual.
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