PhoneBoy Rants About: Microsoft Vs. DOJ

PhoneBoy's Rants About: Microsoft Vs. DOJ

The US Justice Department is charging that Microsoft has violated the terms of a 1995 consent decree governing its licensing practices, which was the result of an anti-trust probe initially started by the Federal Trade Commision, and later taken over by the Justice Department.

The point of contention are these 55 words in the 1995 consent decree:

"Microsoft shall not enter into any License Agreement in which the terms of that agreement are expressly or impliedly conditioned upon: (1) the licensing of any other Covered Product, Operating System Software product or other product (provided, however, that this provision in and of itself shall not be construed to prohibit Microsoft from developing integrated products)." The allegation is that Microsoft forced computer manufacturers to license Microsoft Internet Explorer as a condition of licensing Windows 95. The Justice Department says these are seperate products and a clear violation of the consent decree. Microsoft claims that Internet Explorer and Windows 95 are an "integrated product," which is not against the decree. Whose right?

Likely, there will be a long, protracted legal battle, but here's my take on it. I bought the Windows 95 Upgrade when it first came out in late 1995. I heard of Internet Explorer in 1996 sometime after I bought Windows 95. My impression from Microsoft's marketing and promotion of Internet Explorer was that it was a seperate product, something I could download from Microsoft's web site and install on my system, if I wanted. It was never marketed as an OS upgrade. The fact you can get it for operating systems other than Windows 95 (Windows 3.1 and the Mac) further solidifies the idea that Internet Explorer is a seperate product.

What about the OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer) that make PCs? Microsoft sells Windows 95 to them, but it's a different version from the one they sell to end users in the stores. At some point, they "upgraded" this version to what is commonly referred to as "Win95b" (or OEM Release 2). Aside from some major changes to the operating system, Microsoft started including Internet Explorer as part of the default installation of Windows 95. OEMs had no choice but to use the version of Windows 95 that included Internet Explorer because it was the only version offered to them. End users buying Windows 95 have a choice whether or not to buy Windows 95 without Internet Explorer, or at least they did at one time.

My point is that Microsoft "snuck in" Internet Explorer into Windows, forcing OEMs to include Internet Explorer. When companies wanted to remove the Internet Exporer icon from the desktop, Microsoft threatened to take their Windows 95 license away. Internet Explorer was added to Windows 95 after the fact. Windows 95 was not originally bundled with a browser. They are seperate products.

I just hope the courts do what's right before it's too late.

Last Update: 10 January 1998
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