About the Microsoft Antitrust Trial

Dan Kegel
12 January 2002
Presentation at LILAX
Video online at www.lpbn.org

There are two cases currently in the courts:

Class Action Lawsuit

A large number of customers got together and sued Microsoft for overcharging for Windows.
Microsoft proposed that it settle the suit by donating free copies of Windows to poor schools.
The judge rejected the settlement yesterday, saying it might constitute predatory pricing.
The case returns to court later this year.

Federal Lawsuit

The Government accused Microsoft of using dirty tactics to achieve a monopoly on Windows.
The judges agreed.
Microsoft and the Goverment proposed a settlement which imposes minor restrictions on Microsoft.
The settlement lets Microsoft play legal games to keep Windows apps from running on competing operating systems like Linux.
For example, the Microsoft Platform SDK EULA says:
"Distribution Terms. You may reproduce and distribute ... the Redistributable Components... provided that (a) you distribute the Redistributable Components only in conjunction with and as a part of your Application solely for use with a Microsoft Operating System Product..."
This makes it illegal to run many programs built with Visual C++ on Linux.
The settlement lets Microsoft play technical games to keep Windows apps from running on competing operating systems like Linux.
When Windows 3.1 was being introduced, Microsoft's operating system was MS-DOS. DR-DOS was a compatible competitor to MS-DOS. Microsoft added code to beta copies of Windows 3.1 so it would detect if it was being run on DR-DOS, and if so, display the spurious error message
"Invalid device interface. Unable to load."
(See Caldera vs. Microsoft, Caldera's consolidated response to Microsoftąs motions for partial summary judgment.)
Judge Dee Benson ruled in response that
"Caldera has presented sufficient evidence that the incompatibilities alleged were part of an anticompetitive scheme by Microsoft."

The current settlement does nothing to discourage such behavior.
The judge has not yet decided whether to accept the proposed settlement, and the government is asking for public comments by Jan 25th; see www.kegel.com/remedy for more info and how to send in your comment.