Although the Justice Department's case has been light on evidence of Microsoft's monopoly power, it has left much of the media howling for Microsoft's blood. But Joel Klein, the head of the antitrust division, is eager to be remembered as a believer in the New Economy. And, it will be hard to come up with sanctions that neither harm consumers nor slow innovation. Perhaps Microsoft did have mischief in mind when it created an Internet browser as good as Netscape Navigator, and then bundled it free with Windows. It is hard to see, though, how consumers would benefit if Microsoft were now forced to remove Internet Explorer from Windows or to charge a hefty price for it.
Navigator is easy to obtain now.
Such micro-management may appeal to some but presumably not to the antitrust chief who likened his job to surgery. Perhaps Microsoft could be ordered to abandon contracts with Internet service providers that pressed Internet Explorer into the hands of consumers at the expense of Navigator. Sure, but the consequences would be symbolic since Microsoft never managed to enforce restrictions with Internet service providers and voluntarily abandoned the restrictions before the trial began. Just how this would affect Microsoft's alleged monopoly in Windows is unclear. What it would do is open the way for Sun and other Silicon Valley giants to buy embryonic software makers for less money.