http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46619,00.html Microsoft Still Faces Feds' Regs By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private) 2:00 a.m. Sep. 7, 2001 PDT WASHINGTON -- Microsoft has dodged a breakup, but it may soon become the software industry's first regulated monopoly. Justice Department officials announced Thursday they had abandoned their original goal of carving Microsoft into halves, saying they now want a complex set of "conduct-related" regulations to govern the company's future behavior. The goal, according to the government, is to avoid the legal wrangling involved in defending a breakup order and to "streamline the case with the goal of securing an effective remedy as quickly as possible." Those regulations, described in a court filing by the government in April 2000, set prices for current and future versions of Microsoft Windows and impose severe restrictions on the company's day-to-day operations. Originally designed to last only until a breakup happened, the Justice Department now hopes to make them permanent. If U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agrees, the government regulations that would take effect include: Microsoft can't sell computer makers discounted copies of Windows, except for foreign-language translations. It must open a "secure" lab where partners and competitors may examine the previously internal Windows specifications. Microsoft can't give discounts to hardware or software developers in exchange for promoting or distributing other company products. For instance, Microsoft would be barred from inking a discount deal with CompUSA to bundle a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator with a Microsoft joystick. Microsoft must monitor all changes it makes to all versions of Windows and track any alterations that would slow down or "degrade the performance of" any third-party application such as Internet browsers, e-mail client software, multimedia viewing software, instant messaging software, and voice-recognition software. If it does not notify the third-party developer, criminal sanctions would apply. State and federal government lawyers can visit Microsoft's campus "during office hours" to "inspect and copy" any document, e-mail message, collection of source code or other information they find relevant. That's not all. On Thursday, the Justice Department said in a statement that it wanted to "evaluate whether additional conduct-related provisions are necessary" since the breakup wouldn't happen. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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