Microsoft's lawyer fleet finally earns its keep, the Senate blows a fuse and more Ms-TV.

The Continuing Crisis

•Microsoft has happily admitted forcing computer OEMs to install Internet Exploder on their PCs by threatening to remove their vital Windows licenses. They claim that the web browser is a integral part of the operating system, and as such they have the right to require anyone installing the OS to also install the browser. Coincidentally, this vital feature sells separately as 'Internet Explorer Plus!' for $49.95 at retail and software stores around the country.

Microsoftie Steve Ballmer said "It is not, it is not, it is not illegal, nor is it bad for customers, if we package more technology at better prices each year. If the consumer is getting more from us each year, then the law is doing its job." He added that manufacturers were "completely free" to load competing software onto new machines, and he pointed out how Navigator was preloaded onto computers from major OEMs like Compaq, Toshiba and IBM.

Meanwhile, DOJ papers showed that computer makers Micron and Gateway 2000 repeatedly requested permission to install IE on their systems differently than their contracts stipulated. Microsoft denied the queries from both companies. Upon questioning, Ms denied that the companies had asked for the special priviliges and went back to their broken record of "it's an integral feature of Windows, so we can require them to install it however and whenever we want."

•U.S. congressman Jack Metcalf, a Republican from Microsoft's home state of Washington, is investigating the DoJ probe against Ms. Represenative Metcalf is accusing Janet Reno of attacking Microsoft to divert attention from the President's own mounting legal problems. Certain anonymous congresspersons have, in turn, accused the Senator of being addicted to Microsoft's generous campaign donations.

The majority of US lawmakers don't feel such compassion against poor little Microsoft. In June U.S. Senators Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that it step into the investigation, which it refused to do. The final decision on this issue will likely depend on how much money Microsoft and BillG give for the '98 congressional elections.

•Another Senator, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), is investigating Microsoft's marketing of IEIEO4 in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs. "Beyond Microsoft's apparent violation of the 1995 consent decree, I am concerned that Microsoft appears to be abusing its Windows monopoly to coerce companies not to distribute or promote competitive Internet products," Hatch said.

His committee has had difficulties in their investigation because of a 'Non-Disclosure Agreement' (NDA) Microsoft forced all its OEMs to sign. That agreement prevents the computer manufacturers from telling government investigators or rival software companies anything about their agreements with the behemoth. Hatch is moving to have the NDAs declared invalid in court so his investigation can proceed. Texas Attorney General Mike Morales, who has also been investigating the behomoth for several months, is also seeking to have the NDAs invalidated in a local court.

The Senate committee also is expected to probe the company's business practices and its habit of using exclusive licensing agreements with Internet content providers. As evidence of that, Hatch produced what he said was an exclusive licensing pact between Microsoft and EarthLink Network Inc. saying the company must not tell customers an alternative Internet browser is available. The contract also allows Earthlink to provide another web browser only when a customer specifically asks for one.

•After making the product for two years, Microsoft has finally gotten around to producing a version of Internet Exploder for Un*x. Beta 1 of IE for Sun Solaris 2.51 went up on Ms' badly laid out web site last Wednesday. The final programs for Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, and IRIX are expected to be released in the first quarter of next year. The behemoth also released beta 2 of IE4 for Windows 3.1 on Wednesday. Final products for that platform and the Mac are expected just in time to ruin Christmas.

•Microsoft has made a deal with US West to buy a stake in its cable operations. The six-percent share, worth about $1 billion, will be in MediaOne, US Wests' cable operations which are slated to become an independant company by the middle of 1998. Media One will get USW's 25% share of the TimeWarner company. That means by the middle of next year Microsoft will indirectly own about 1.9% of the world's largest media company, on top of the 6.5% share in MediaOne and a 11.5% share in Comcast, the three of which control 75% of US cable networks. TimeWarner also owns MSNBC competitor CNN, Time Magazine, Fortune, Money Magazine and a pile of other influential media companies. This isn't a monopoly, just one company controlling almost every major media outlet there is.

•Finally, last week Ms' leftist online/print newsmagazine Slate published an article by anti-Microsoft crusader Ralph Nader entitled 'The Microsoft Menace.' No comments about this have been issued from Redmond. Update suspects this is more Slate revenge against BillG for saying he prefers to read printed magazines instead of e-zines like Slate.

Note: Mr. Nader's Appraising Microsoft Conference will be held this Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C. For more info, surf to the Appraising Microsoft site. MSBC NewsSource will have as much coverage as we have room for.

Microsoft Stock Track

MSFT Stock Price^*133 5/16

Bill Gates' Worth$37.6 Billion

*As Of Closing, 11/14/97
Thanks to Bill Gates Personal Wealth Clock.

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