FC: Justice Department, states consider blocking Windows XP

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Also:

http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30393-2001Aug3.html
State and federal prosecutors in the Microsoft antitrust case continue to 
wrestle with a critical decision: whether to try to block the release of 
Windows XP, scheduled to reach stores on Oct. 25, or to have the company 
modify the new operating system software. ... The fundamental question for 
prosecutors is whether to try to force changes in XP before it ships to the 
public, or to let XP go to market but use it as, in effect, the star 
witness in upcoming hearings on what penalties should be imposed on 
Microsoft...

********

[The Post's editorial could just as easily have been written: "THE VIGOR 
with which the Justice Department and states have insisted that the recent 
antitrust ruling by a federal appeals court mean Microsoft must kowtow to 
their demands over its new operating system -- Windows XP -- has a familiar 
and worrisome ring." --DBM]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30259-2001Aug3.html

Not So Fast
Editorial
Saturday, August 4, 2001; Page A22
THE VIGOR with which Microsoft has insisted that the recent antitrust 
ruling by a federal appeals court has no implications for its new operating 
system -- Windows XP -- has a familiar and worrisome ring. The software 
giant plans to release XP in October, which means shipping it to computer 
manufacturers this month. As has happened in advance of prior releases of 
Microsoft's major new products, the impending move has provoked concerns 
about what XP will do to competition in the software marketplace. And as 
has happened in the past, Microsoft is waving off such concerns. The 
difference, of course, is that Microsoft has now been found -- by a 
unanimous D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals -- to be a monopolist that took 
illegal steps to maintain its dominant position. In the face of the court's 
powerful holding, the manner in which the company is now proceeding risks 
antagonizing the courts and the Justice Department and making settlement of 
this case more difficult.

[...]

One would think that all of this uncertainty would induce caution, to avoid 
a situation in which XP is released only then to produce a train wreck in 
the continuing antitrust litigation -- or, worse yet, new litigation. 
Microsoft must realize that it has, in many sectors, exhausted its goodwill 
and that it can ill afford now to be appearing to thumb its nose at the 
federal courts by once again pushing limits. Particularly if the company is 
as confident as it claims it is that XP avoids the pitfalls in which 
Microsoft has earlier fallen, it should make every effort to reassure the 
federal and state authorities who will have to decide how to react to the 
product's impending release. Those authorities need to scrutinize the new 
product in light of the court's ruling, and Microsoft will need to be 
flexible about making any changes necessary to keep it within the law.




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