Which Remedies? Appraising Microsoft II -- on April 30, 1999

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

This is the announcement for the new Appraising Microsoft conference.
The first conference focused on Microsoft's conduct.  This one will
examine remedies.   Jamie Love <love@cptech.org>

  
                 WHICH REMEDIES? 
             APPRAISING MICROSOFT II
                 April 30, 1999
                 Washington, DC

On April 30, 1999, Ralph Nader and Essential Information will host a one
day conference on remedies for anticompetitive conduct by Microsoft.
"Which Remedies? Appraising Microsoft II," follows an earlier Appraising
Microsoft conference held in November 1997, the first conference to
focus exclusively on anticompetitive conduct by Microsoft.

The Friday April 30 conference on remedies will feature four panels. The
first panel will focus on divestitures and structural remedies. The
second panel will focus on unbundling, pricing and contracting
practices. The third panel will address interoperability remedies. The
fourth panel will focus on non-antitrust remedies, such as procurement
policies, consumer boycotts or use of alternative operating systems.
Speakers for panels will be announced in April.

The conference is open to the public. The price of registration will be
$250 for businesses and $45 for government and non-profit participants.
There will be a limited number of scholarships available for students
and others.

The conference will be held at Washington, DC. The conference agenda,
registration forms and contact information are on the web at:
http://www.appraising-microsoft.org

For additional information, contact Donna Colvin at 202.387.8030, fax
202.234.5176, email: dcolvin@essential.org 



                     Agenda 
         (Speakers to be announced) 



     Introduction by Ralph Nader 8:30 AM 

     Panel One 9:00 a.m. -10:30 a.m.

         Divestitures, Structural Remedies 

              Chinese Walls
              Horizontal divestitures
                  OS, Desktop Applications, 
                  Internet Applications, 
                  Electronic Commerce 
              Vertical Divestitures
                  3 Microsofts 

     Panel Two 10:45 a.m. -12:30 p.m.

         Unbundling, pricing, contracting Practices 
              Technical issues regarding unbundling
              Remedies that chang economic incentives 
                  regarding unbundling
              Unbundling E-Commerce and navigation 
                  applications and links, including
              dynamic relationships
              Non-discriminatory pricing of OEM licenses
              Restrictions on exclusive contracts and 
                  rebate practices

     Panel Three 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

         Interoperability Remedies 

              Disclosure of Applications Programming 
                  Interfaces (APIs)
              Open Source Code
              Documentation of Data formats
              Support for Open Interfaces and protocols
              Non-interference with non-MS product 
                  and protocol development 
              Special problems relating to free 
                  software movement
              Licensing of Software patents 

     Panel Four 3:15 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.

         Non antitrust remedies 

              Government and private procurement policies
              Consumer Boycotts
              Linux, xBSD and other free software
              Alternative commercial operating systems, 
                such as BeOS, Mac-X OS, Amiga, New Deal

     Closing Comment 4:45 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. 


-- 
James Love, Director, Consumer Project on Technology
I can be reached at love@cptech.org, by telephone 202.387.8030,
by fax at 202.234.5176. CPT web page is http://www.cptech.org