lol Microsoft has every right to put their own web browser with their own operating system. If mozilla and Netscape want people to use their web browsers put it on cd and give it out for free in computer stores or something.
This was back in the Windows 98 days when some of you were still in elementary school, lol. Yes, I'm that old.
AOL's Netscape sues Microsoft
"The Justice Department and 20 states filed their antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in May 1998, but only 19 states pursued the case. One more state dropped out last year.
The suit alleged that through a variety of business tactics--exclusive contracts and integration of the Internet Explorer browser with Windows 98, among others--Microsoft used its monopoly power to squash Netscape.
The government argued that Microsoft believed Netscape could develop into middleware that could eventually replace Windows. The government also asserted that Microsoft used anti-competitive means to preserve its monopoly. These arguments and evidence introduced by the government resounded with Jackson, who presided over the trial.
"Through its conduct toward Netscape, IBM, Compaq, Intel, and others, Microsoft has demonstrated that it will use its prodigious market power and immense profits to harm any firm that insists on pursuing initiatives that could intensify competition against one of Microsoft's core products," Jackson wrote in his findings of fact in November 1999.
Jackson concluded that Microsoft's actions prevented consumers from having more choices and innovations. "Many of the tactics Microsoft employed have also harmed consumers indirectly by unjustifiably distorting competition," he found.
Although lawyers have filed more than 100 private lawsuits on behalf of consumers, the government's case actually does a better job bolstering civil lawsuits brought by competitors.
Gray estimated damages could be anywhere "from the hundreds of millions to the billions of dollars."
In the quarter ended Dec. 31, Microsoft set aside $660 million to cover the potential cost of settling the class-action suits pending against the company. Still, Microsoft has nearly $40 billion in cash.
While the Netscape lawsuit "piggybacks on the findings of fact and conclusions of law the government spent years determining," the goal is much broader, Lande said. "In some ways, they want to retry the whole and get at the things the government left out.â€
In the June 2001 appeals court decision, seven judges threw out Jackson's order that would have broken Microsoft in two. The court also sent back to retrial the allegation that Microsoft had illegally tied--or integrated--its Web browser with the operating system. The Justice Department decided not pursue either matter. The court also dismissed a claim Microsoft illegally tried to extend its monopoly to the browser market."
