Microsoft will have to make the code for Internet Explorer open
source if a US federal court agrees with a remedy plan filed by
nine US states.
The proposal will allow Microsoft to continue to sell a fully
featured Windows operating system, but it will also be required to
produce a stripped-down version that would allow other PC makers to
add applications.
The proposal, filed with the US District Court on 7 December, goes
far beyond the settlement Microsoft reached in November with the US
Department of Justice and nine of the 18 states involved in the
antitrust case.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the proposal
used June's US Court of Appeals decision as a blueprint. The
decision upheld a finding that Microsoft had unlawfully maintained
its monopoly in operating systems. "Our hope is that it will
prevent the monopolistic conduct," Blumenthal said.
"I want to see Microsoft obey the law," said California Attorney
General Bill Lockyer. "It's not fair to other businesses and it's
not fair to consumers to have one large company break the law to
their own commercial advantage." The goal, he said, "is to have an
open and fair competitive market place".
The proposal includes some of the provisions of the US Department
of Justice settlement, including mandating uniform licensing and
pricing of the Windows operating system to PC makers. But in many
respects, it is a different proposal.
For example, the plan calls for the appointment of a "special
master", a person with far more authority to oversee Microsoft's
operations than the three-member committee proposed in the Justice
Department's settlement. The proposal also broadens the ban on
retaliation to include just about anyone who helped the government
in this case.
Microsoft has called the proposal extreme and said it believes the
Justice Department's proposal is fair.
In calling for opening up the source code for Internet Explorer,
the remedy said: "Given that Microsoft's browser dominance was
achieved to bolster the operating system monopoly, the remedial
prescription must involve undoing that dominance to the extent it
is still possible to do so. Accordingly, the appropriate solution
is to mandate open source licensing of Internet Explorer."
The remedy also calls for mandatory distribution of Sun
Microsystems' Java technology with the Windows operating system.
Most significantly, the agreement calls for cross-porting of the
Office suite, which has well over 90% market share already, to
other operating systems, including Apple Computer's Macintosh
operating system.
"It's a serious, credible effort to address the real problem," said
Ed Black, chief executive of the Computer & Communications
Industry Association, whose members include Oracle and Sun
Microsystems. Black, who has called the Department of Justice
settlement a sell-out, said the latest remedy proposal would
provide some viable options for other companies to compete against
Microsoft.