The Site Y-Life Scoops Net. The no-royalty deals come as Microsoft continues to chip away at Navigator's market share by seeding the world with free browsers. The fee is unpopular among large ISPs because copies of Navigator can be easily obtained for free from other sources on the Web.
Some providers even point their customers to such sites to avoid paying royalties to Netscape.
Netscape inked agreements with more than 100 ISPs, original equipment manufacturers and telecommunications companies for distribution. ISPs are an increasingly popular browser distribution channel for both Netscape and Microsoft. Last week, Microsoft announced that Explorer 4.0 was chosen by 10 leading ISPs as their default browser - a blow to Netscape. However, the announcement inaccurately included Sprint in that group, and a closer examination of the list reveals that several ISPs still offer Netscape to those who want it. If you don't know what you want, we'll give you Internet Explorer.