Saturday, January 24, 2004

NYT: Judge Satisfied With Microsoft's Antitrust Case Compliance

NYT: Judge Satisfied With Microsoft's Antitrust Case Compliance "The decree seems to be operating," Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said during a hearing yesterday in Federal District Court in Washington. "We only have concerns about one provision."
That provision, however, was also the focus of the Justice Department's criticism last week. It is intended to ensure fair competition in the market for server software for computers that run corporate networks. Unlike the personal computer operating system market, where it has a monopoly with Windows, Microsoft faces substantial competition in server software. I.B.M., Sun Microsystems, Oracle and others compete against Microsoft in the server market. So do more specialized rivals, like Real Networks, which makes server software for streaming music and video over the Internet.
This element of the consent decree called for Microsoft to share or license on reasonable terms the software it uses for sending data between personal computer and server versions of Windows. The remedy was included in the consent decree to prevent Microsoft from using its monopoly on the desktop to gain an unfair advantage in competition for server software."

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