[Am-info] AOL Sues Microsoft Over Browser

[Mitch Stone]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020122/tc/microsoft_netscape_2.html

Tuesday January 22 4:27 PM ET 

AOL Sues Microsoft Over Browser

By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - AOL Time Warner sued Microsoft in federal court Tuesday 
over AOL's Netscape Internet browser, which ruled computer desktops until 
Microsoft began giving its competing browser away.

Many of Microsoft's business practices, including ones in which the 
company encouraged computer manufacturers and Internet providers to 
distribute its Web browser instead of Netscape, were found to be 
anticompetitive by a federal appeals court last year. AOL, which now owns 
Netscape, wants Microsoft to cease its contested business practices and 
pay damages.

AOL executive John Buckley noted the court ruling and said, ``This action 
is an attempt to get justice in this matter.''

AOL filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of 
Columbia. Under federal law, AOL would be entitled to triple any actual 
damages found by the court.

The company also asked for an immediate injunction against ``ongoing and 
further damage'' involving Netscape's browser, Buckley said.

One possible option, if a judge rules in favor of AOL, would be to force 
Microsoft to sell a stripped-down version of its Windows operating system 
so computer manufacturers could choose which Internet browser to offer. 
That has also been requested by nine state attorneys general suing 
Microsoft in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who heard the federal 
government's case against Microsoft in the Netscape matter, found that 
Microsoft tried to keep consumers from being able to choose Netscape.

``All of Microsoft's agreements, including the non-exclusive ones, 
severely restricted Netscape's access,'' Jackson wrote.

University of Baltimore law professor Bob Lande said of AOL and its 
lawsuit: ``This is a company that obviously can afford it, and wouldn't 
take the step lightly.''

``I think they've got an excellent chance of success given that the 
government has established the facts and established that Microsoft has 
broken the law,'' he said.

A judge would still have the challenge of choosing a remedy that would 
restore competition to the Internet browser market. Netscape has only a 
sliver of the Internet browser market, compared to its dominance several 
years ago.

``You can't literally put the market back in the competitive position it 
was in, so you'd have to think of a forward-looking remedy to help 
restore competition in the market as best as possible,'' Lande said.

The federal government and nine other states settled their landmark 
antitrust suit with Microsoft last year, and that settlement is under 
consideration by a federal judge. AOL has been a longtime critic of 
Microsoft and has talked frequently with prosecutors throughout the case.