Justice Department Assails Microsoft Browser Claim
WASHINGTON — Microsoft Corp. is trying to rewrite history with its claim that its Windows 95 program and Internet browser software were designed to be integrated products, the Justice Department said Thursday.
An internal company memo, the government says, shows Microsoft wanted to use its power over the market for personal computer operating systems to boost its share of the Internet browser market.
In documents filed in connection with its latest antitrust complaint against Microsoft, the government also said Microsoft is unnecessarily trying to drag out court proceedings in an effort to “render the critical issues moot†and boost “Microsoft’s commercial advantage†by continuing its current marketing practices in its Internet browser war with Netscape Communications Corp.
The government documents were filed Thursday in response to Microsoft’s defense against an antitrust complaint filed last month.
The department sued Microsoft last month, alleging it was trying to corner the market on browsers, which enable computer users to find and retrieve information on the Internet. The suit claims Microsoft is in contempt of a 1995 court order barring the company from anti-competitive licensing.
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Microsoft insists it has done nothing wrong because, it claims, its Internet Explorer Web browser is an integral part of the Windows 95 software and not a separate product.
The government’s response said Microsoft “has named, packaged and positioned Internet Explorer as a separate product†and “seeks to rewrite this history--to disavow everything it has told millions of consumers--by attempting to characterize Internet Explorer as an ‘integrated’ component of Windows 95.â€
In its complaint, the government contends the world’s biggest PC software company had threatened Compaq Computer Corp. and other manufacturers that wanted to feature Netscape’s competing Navigator browser on their products.
Those threats, the government charges, violate terms of an earlier 1995 antitrust settlement, which forbids the company from forcing manufacturers to take other software products as a condition for getting the dominant Windows operating system.
In its latest filing, the government says nothing related to browser software was “ever discussed†during consent decree negotiations.
In other Microsoft news, Philippines President Fidel Ramos will meet with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates today and sign agreements paving the way for development of the country’s information infrastructure, the company said.
Ramos will meet with Gates for about 30 minutes at the Redmond, Wash., headquarters of the computer software giant and then sign a series of four memorandums of understanding regarding future business, company spokesman Mark Thomas said.
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Under the agreements, Microsoft will help the Philippines develop a long-term information technology plan and create national Internet sites for education and government services.
The Philippines will pledge to protect Microsoft’s intellectual property rights through laws and their enforcement, Thomas said.
In May, Ramos, who has been promoting the country’s national information technology plan, visited California and presided over the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft archrival Oracle Corp.
Ramos will also speak at a conference on technology in Seattle today during the stopover on his way to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vancouver.
