Microsoft files response to govt. Microsoft's critics themselves used to call these remedies extreme. But some legal experts now say the government has no real alternative to forcing the company to shed assets. Even Congress has taken note. Microsoft critic Orrin Hatch said Monday the committee will likely hold hearings weighing a range of remedies once Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson makes a final ruling.
Possibilities run the gamut.
Force Microsoft to license Windows source code to its competitors, freeing them to innovate without fear that Microsoft will introduce incompatibilities that will torpedo their products. The only other option, critics say, is long-term regulation and that would surely result in a hobbled, distracted Microsoft that would fail shareholders and consumers alike. Jackson should be especially skeptical of a remedy that forbids certain conduct in lieu of a break-up. The Justice Department thought that language forbade Microsoft from adding its Internet Explorer to Windows. An appeals court, however, disagreed, which effectively rendered that anti-monopoly language moot.