Microsoft, Washington: A Familiar Frenzy

Apr 27 1998

OK, it isn't quite the Monica Lewinsky case. But the latest episode of Microsoft vs. the U.S. Department of Justice, played out last week in the very building that houses the Lewinsky grand jury, had the feel of a standard-issue Beltway media circus.

It was only an appeals court hearing, albeit on an important issue: whether a lower court had erred in requiring Microsoft to sell a Windows 95 operating system to computer manufacturers sans the Internet Explorer Web browser. No ruling is expected for several weeks.

Still, television news trucks lined Constitution Avenue. Microphones seemed to grow out of the sidewalk. "Place savers" - some earning $29 per hour - got in line at 4 a.m. to guarantee that the likes of Edelman Public Relations flacks, Wall Street analysts and expense-account reporters would get seats.

There was a small pro-Microsoft protest - one wag called it a "dozen-geek march" - and plenty of posturing for the cameras. Ed Black of the Computer and Communications Industry Association said piously, "We are not in this because we are for or against a competitor. We want to promote competition in the technology industry."

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges, of course, were trying to determine exactly what promotes competition, or at least what constitutes fair play under the consent decree that Microsoft signed almost four years ago. Judge Patricia Wald zeroed in on the issue that may render the court's work moot, asking, "Once Windows 98 hits the market, will there be any market left for Windows 95?"

The importance of the appeal process does seem to be fading. But if Justice goes ahead with a new antitrust action, as many anticipate, Bill Gates and that other Bill may find this courthouse equally deflating.