Andrew Hood
5th Period
Prin. B/M/F
Morton
Antitrust Laws
United States v. Microsoft
In 1998, the United States Department of Justice initiated the Sherman Antitrust Act 1890. In 2001, the Microsoft corporation was stated to have become a monopoly and “engaging in abusive practices contrary to the Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 sections 1 and 2.” While Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor, there were also twenty states and the United States Department of Justice opposed to the actions of the company Microsoft.
The lead prosecutor, Joel I. Klein, currently a lawyer and school superintendent for East Ramapo Central School District in the New York area, claimed that Microsoft was “abusing monopoly power” on their personal-computers through the intel and revenue earned.
A fact that most certainly didn’t help Microsoft’s case a single bit is that they were one of the “most successful software companies”, having earned around $55,000,000 (fifty-five million dollars). This didn’t help by making Microsoft look somewhat suspicious, because they had got rich so quickly and easily. Microsoft’s founders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, have both gone on to become some of the richest men on earth. To this day, Gates is ranked as the richest person in the world.
During the trials, Gates was described as “evasive and nonresponsive” when questioned and interrogated. Being the richest person in the world, it is expected that many would be looking for reasons to convict Gates.
The trial, with Joel I. Klein as the lead prosecutor and “the United States Department of Justice and the Attorneys General of twenty states suing”, began on May 18, 1998, and was not concluded until November 2, 2001. During the trial, numerous videotapes were shown as evidence against Microsoft, claiming that they were “abusing monopoly power.”
The evidence presented to accuse Microsoft were a number of videotapes in which “demonstrated [Microsoft] removing Internet Explorer from Microsoft Windows causing slowdowns and malfunctions in Windows.” Microsoft was also convicted of requiring “computer makers to include its internet browser as a part of the installation of Windows software.”
This trial’s final ruling, presented and concluded by judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, was that Microsoft “constituted a monopoly, and that Microsoft had taken actions to crush threats to that monopoly, including Apple, Java, Netscape, Lotus Notes, RealNetworks, Linux, and others.”
Today, Microsoft is listed as the fourth best computer company according to some, while some think it is the best. Although apparently having attempted to crush Apple, Apple is now considered, by most, the dominant and optimal computer company.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.