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Industry group weighs in against Microsoft

By James Niccolai
IDG News Service, 02/02/00

A powerful software industry association that counts Microsoft among its members has urged the judge overseeing the U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft to find that the company has violated antitrust laws.

The association - The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) - made its recommendation in a "friend of the court brief" filed on behalf of the Department of Justice, which is pursuing the case against Microsoft along with 19 U.S. states.

The filing was one of a handful of such friend of the court briefs filed that could help shape the opinion of U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson as he nears a final ruling in the case. Other briefs were filed on behalf of Microsoft, and the U.S. states, while a fourth was filed by noted Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig at the request of Jackson himself.

The SIIA brief referred often to the opinions expressed in Jackson's findings of fact, a preliminary ruling issued last November in which the judge deemed Microsoft to be a monopoly that has harmed competition and consumers.

"This court's findings of fact ring true to SIIA," the association wrote in its filing. Microsoft has behaved anticompetitively, and the court should conclude from its actions that the software vendor has indeed violated antitrust laws, it said. To reach any other conclusion would "effectively nullify" the legal protections to competition, the SIIA said.

"We acknowledge that a successful company such as Microsoft can lawfully obtain and retain a large market share, and can compete vigorously to the detriment of smaller rivals," the SIIA said in its brief. "The antitrust laws have established limits on permissible conduct by a company with monopoly power, however, and Microsoft has flagrantly exceeded those limits."

The SIIA claims to be the world's largest trade association representing companies in the software, information and Internet industries. Microsoft is a member of SIIA's elected 19-member board. While the software maker doesn't share the majority viewpoint of the organization, Microsoft had a "full opportunity" to share its views on the matters discussed in the brief, the SIIA said.

The 19-member board met Jan. 24 and voted by secret ballot in favor of filing the brief, the SIIA said.

The full text of the SIIA's amicus brief is on the association's Web site, at http://www.siia.net/SIIAamicus.htm/.> Microsoft can be reached at 425-882-8080 or at www.microsoft.com/. The Justice Department can be reached at www.usdoj.gov/.