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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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