FC: Transcript of Justice Deparment press conf, Microsoft statement

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

DOJ sends out these transcripts, apparently for lazy reporters' quoting 
convenience, so here you go.

Background:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02195.html
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=antitrust

*********

For Immediate Release
June 28, 2001

Microsoft Response to U.S. Court of Appeals Decision

REDMOND, Wash. - June 28, 2001 - In response to the U.S. Court of Appeals
decision today, Microsoft Corp. issued the following initial response.

"Microsoft is pleased that the U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned most of
the lower court's findings against the company, drastically narrowing the
case and removing the breakup cloud from the company."

"The central issue in this case is the fundamental principle that every
company must have the ability to innovate and improve its products on behalf
of its customers.  On this point, we are very pleased that this ruling
reverses the District Court's previous ruling and provides a positive
framework for Microsoft if these issues have to be retried.  Today's ruling
creates a better framework for allowing companies to improve products on
behalf of consumers by adding new and innovative features."

"While there are some aspects of this ruling on which we didn't prevail, we
continue to believe that we face significant competition every day and we
must continually improve our products in order to succeed."

"We recognize that as a successful company, we have an important
responsibility under the law and to the broader industry.  We take that
responsibility very seriously, and we will continue to work hard to provide
great opportunity for our industry partners and consumers.  We also
understand that the best outcome for our customers, shareholders, partners
and the entire industry is a quick resolution to this case. The case was
substantially narrowed today, and we will continue to work toward resolving
the remaining issues expeditiously."

*********

Attorney General News Conference
June 28, 2001

 ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: Good afternoon. Today the United States Circuit Court 
of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued its opinion in the Microsoft case. 
I'm pleased to say that the court unanimously found that Microsoft engaged 
in unlawful conduct to maintain its dominate position in the computer 
operating systems. This is a significant victory.

     I want to applaud the hard work of the men and women in the Antitrust 
Division and the Solicitor Generals Office, from the prosecutors and 
economists, to the paralegals who have worked tirelessly on behalf of the 
American people. I also want to thank the state attorneys general who have 
worked side by side with the department in this respect.

     I want to introduce to you now someone that I'm pleased to work with 
on a daily basis, Charles James, the assistant attorney general for the 
Antitrust Division. He will make a brief statement at this particular time 
and, obviously, is going to be available in terms of a more comprehensive 
discussion of this issue later on.

     The Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Charles James.

     Charles?

     MR. JAMES: Thank you, sir.

     Just to amplify briefly on the attorney general's comments. Today's 
decision represents a very significant victory for the Antitrust Division 
on the core claim in the Microsoft case; that Microsoft engaged in 
anti-competitive conduct to preserve is monopoly position in computer 
operating systems.

     The unanimous court has concluded now that Microsoft has monopoly 
power and has acted unlawfully to preserve it. The court of appeals, 
however, sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings 
on the time claim and the remedy.

     The court's decision is both long and very complex. Our task in the 
Antitrust Division is to work with the states to digest the opinion and 
determine our future course of conduct.

     Thank you.

     ATTY. GEN. ASHCROFT: A top priority of this administration and this 
Department of Justice is reducing gun crime by the vigorous enforcement of 
the national's gun laws. The Brady Act, enacted in 1994, requires that all 
federally licensed gun dealers perform a background check before selling a 
firearm. The Brady Law helps us stop convicted felons and other dangerous 
individuals from buying guns easily.
     Today I am announcing a plan to improve the process of background 
checks on gun buyers, a plan which will achieve two major objectives. The 
first objective is to increase prosecutions of those who attempt to 
purchase guns illegally. The second is to improve the accuracy, efficiency 
and reliability of the national instant criminal background check system, a 
system we call NICS.

     Just a few weeks ago, President Bush unveiled Project Safe 
Neighborhoods, a comprehensive national strategy to enforce vigorously 
existing gun laws.

     Federal law makes it a felony for convicted felons and other 
dangerous persons even to possess a gun. Federal law also makes it a felony 
for convicted felons and other dangerous individuals to lie about their 
records in attempting to buy a gun. Violation of these laws carries 
penalties of up to 10 years in prison. Violators can and should be 
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

     The reality, however, is that Brady Act violations are not being 
prosecuted adequately. From Brady's enactment in 1994 through June 5th of 
this year, the FBI has referred 217,000 attempted illegal gun purchases for 
investigation. Of these, only 294 people have been convicted. We can, we 
should, and we must do a better job of preserving the integrity of our gun 
laws in the eyes of the citizens who are expected to obey these laws.

     Today I am directing all U.S. attorneys to prosecute to the fullest 
extent practicable persons who attempt to purchase guns illegally. To 
provide prosecutors with the tools they need, the Department of Justice is 
targeting 113 new prosecutors in the areas with the highest levels of gun 
crime.

     In some areas, we will double or triple the number of federal 
prosecutors devoted to the prosecution of gun crimes. Phoenix; Los Angeles; 
Washington, D.C.; Miami, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; New 
Orleans; Baltimore; Detroit; St. Louis; New York, northern Ohio; 
Philadelphia; Puerto Rico; Houston; eastern Virginia; Milwaukee -- all of 
these areas are receiving needed assistance to prosecute Brady Act 
violations and other gun crimes.

     Secondly, today I am issuing a series of directives to make the 
national instant criminal background check system a more reliable and 
efficient tool to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and other 
dangerous persons.

     I'm directing the FBI to increase to the fullest extent practicable 
the percentage of the NICS checks that result in an immediate response of 
"proceed" or "denied" while the dealer who is proposing the sale is still 
on the telephone. Currently 71 percent of calls are given an immediate 
response. I'm directing the FBI to explore ways to increase this number to 
90 percent, the highest level practicable given the current state of 
criminal history records in our system.

     The back check system is only as good as the criminal records it 
contains. Many of the over 62 million criminal history records note an 
arrest but fail to specify how the arrest was resolved. That makes it 
impossible for the NICS examiner to know the outcome of the case.

     The Brady law permits transfer of a gun if no disposition of record 
can be found within three days. A recent FBI study found that between April 
and December of the year 2000 over 45,000 applicants with an open arrest 
record were allowed to purchase guns because the three-day requirement was 
not met. Improving the criminal history records will decrease this number, 
and it will speed up the approval process for law-abiding purchasers.

     I am therefore also directing the Bureau of Justice Statistics to 
conduct a comprehensive, state-by-state review of missing or incomplete 
criminal history records, including adjudication records of cases regarding 
competence in mental illness and domestic violence. Based on that review, 
the Bureau of Justice Statistics will target its grants to those states 
where improving records repository would have the impact most therapeutic 
on the background check system by closing the gaps in our
awareness of criminal records.



     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: Well, when you look at the Brady mandate or the 
Brady law, there are two competing aspirations in the Brady law. The first 
says -- is that we should limit the access of certain individuals -- 
dangerous individuals, convicted felons -- to guns, and the second says 
that we need to protect the privacy of individuals.

     Balancing those interests is important, and the maintenance of 
records of gun purchases is prohibited by the act, except to the extent 
necessary.

     And we believe that we can have the kind of accurate auditing that is 
recommended by the computer industry for the conduct of these kinds of 
checks in a very quick time frame and that it would be inappropriate, 
consistent with the mandate of the law, to require a further maintenance of 
those records than is necessary. The intent of the law is, one, to protect 
the privacy of legitimate gun dealers and, second, to have a capacity for 
auditing. We are confident the capacity for auditing in a real-time setting 
can be done.

     Most of us are familiar with real-time auditing of telephone 
transactions regarding computers and databases. We frequently call now to 
get information, and you'll hear things like "This phone is being recorded" 
for purposes of checking and verifying the integrity and value of the phone 
call, and those kinds of auditing procedures are the kinds of procedure 
which best guarantee the integrity of those events, and those are the kind 
that we would move toward.

     Yes, sir.

     Q Sir, on Microsoft, the appeals court rejected the remedy that the 
department had favored, the breakup of Microsoft. Do you have a reaction to 
that portion of the ruling today?

     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: We feel that the court, in stating very clearly 
that the monopoly position of Microsoft was maintained in an unlawful 
manner and by unlawful conduct that was used to maintain this dominant 
position is a major victory. And for me to go further than to make that 
kind of statement is to ask me to remark beyond the level of my reading of 
the opinion at this time. The opinion just came out at noon.

     Q Is a settlement more likely?

     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: Pardon me. Would you state again that --

     Q (Inaudible.)

     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: I don't believe that we're in a weakened 
position. My own view is that this is a victory for the department, and so 
the department is not, I believe, in a weakened position here. The court 
did find that Microsoft had engaged in unlawful conduct to maintain its 
dominant position in the computer operating system arena. And we'll 
carefully read the decision with a view toward shaping our conduct.

     STAFF: One more question.

     Q Will settlement of the case be an option? And will you continue to 
push for a breakup?

     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: We will pursue the best interests of the American 
people and of America. And to the extent that we can get that done, we will 
explore all kinds of avenues to do that. My judgment is that we still have 
a lot of analysis to do in this very complex opinion. It's pretty clear 
from the complexity of the opinion that the court made every effort to 
address a very wide variety of serious and difficult issue, and we have to 
digest that opinion very carefully.

     Yes, sir?

     Q How long do you think it will take to bring James Kopp back to the 
United States, considering the possibility that he could appeal today's 
ruling to higher courts in France?

     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: I'm not sure what the time frame would be in the 
judicial system. I would just indicate that the system has to date moved 
with relative alacrity and dispatch, and we're pleased that the system 
appears to have made this preliminary determination that extradition in 
regard to federal charges would be appropriate.

     Q On Mr. Milosevic, could you --

     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT: I think I -- yes?

     Q Sir, the states attorneys generals in the Microsoft case have 
indicated this afternoon that they will be pushing for breakup. Does it 
complicate matters if the states attorneys generals are getting out in 
front of the Justice Department in this matter? And have you discussed his 
yet with them?

     ATTY GEN. ASHCROFT; We're still working to digest this opinion very 
thoroughly. We believe this is a significant victory in terms of the 
determination made by a unanimous court that Microsoft had engaged in 
unlawful conduct. But I'm not prepared at this time to indicate what the 
final outcome to be pursued on the part of the Justice Department is. We'll 
shape our response to the decision after we have more time to digest it.

     Thank you very much.

     Q Thank you.

END.




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