An ever-vigilant watchdog
Is there a need, as some have speculated, to modify antitrust laws to
accommodate the abbreviated product cycles and other characteristics that
are unique to the computer industry?
I don't think so. I think the antitrust laws are broad enough to be able to
resolve any difficulties that exist in the computer industry. But there's
no question that these are tough issues. They're tough questions, and it
takes a certain amount of very, very worthwhile and forthright intelligence
to resolve them. Naturally, nobody likes to have the Justice Department
coming down on them.
I think that, now that Microsoft is a monopoly, there are certain things
and certain constraints and restraints that they should have to live
within. They just can't be allowed to run rampant over any other business
or to do things that are blatant violations of the antitrust laws--or even
subtle violations of the antitrust laws. That's why we have a Justice
Department, that's why we have oversight, that's why we have the laws, and
no matter how important the company is, no matter how great it is,
Microsoft has to abide by the law just like everybody else.
Would you agree with some of the pundits who found
Bill Gates to be
non-responsive to a number of your questions the other day, and found
Michael Dell to be a little bit less than credible on some of the points
concerning restrictions on shipping Netscape Navigator?
Well, naturally I disagreed with some of the comments Mr. Gates made--I think
that was apparent--but he did make some concessions that were very
important in
that hearing. Also, it's tough to witness before Congress. People naturally
sometimes feel a little intimidated, or they feel a little stressed, and
it's not easy to testify before a congressional
committee, and especially the Judiciary Committee, and especially on
antitrust. I allow for a lot of leeway there.
I personally do not believe Microsoft would have changed its ways with
regard to the licensing agreement that it had with the ISPs had it not been
for that hearing. So that hearing in and of itself was a very forward thing
that caused some very interesting and important changes that literally have
evened up competition and made competition even more viable in this
country. So it was worthwhile doing that.
This last hearing, we'll have to see what happens, but I thought it was an
extremely interesting hearing. I thought that Bill Gates by and large did a
pretty good job of testifying, but I think he also admitted some things
that I think Microsoft's going to have to change.
And how about Michael Dell asserting that there are no restrictions on
shipping Netscape Navigator?
Well, he looked a little uncomfortable when we pointed out that we had
called his people and they just plain rebutted what he said. I felt that
Michael Dell's testimony was basically against Microsoft. He came there to
support Microsoft at Mr. Gates's request. Originally, we were only going to
have Mr. Gates, Mr. McNealy, and Mr. Barksdale, but Mr. Gates felt that was
unfair--that it was two to one against him, so he suggested
Mr. Dell and [Doug Burgum, CEO of Great
Plains Software], and I said "Fine, glad to do that."
Any plans for a follow up to this hearing, and if so, when and how?
Well we're not going to go away. This is an important issue. We still have
a lot of complaints that need to be investigated. We don't have an
immediate hearing coming up, but I suspect we'll continue to hold oversight
hearings to see where we go in this area and see just what should be done.
Naturally, there are a lot of sincere, decent people who feel put-upon, who
feel that Microsoft has not been fair, and then again, Microsoft feels like
it's being put-upon
too, and being penalized because it has been so successful. I can
understand that, and certainly will try to always be fair to Microsoft and
to the others as well. But our goal here is just to do what's right.
One thing we do want to do is, I felt that Bill Gates had indicated that he
could work out an agreement with us, similar to the agreement that they
worked out with the Justice Department, to allow people to talk to us, in
contradistinction to their nondisclosure agreements or their licensing
agreements. And I've agreed that the Committee will guard the trade secrets
and the business secrets of the company. So, I'm hopeful that we can work
out that particular letter of authorization and then we can go on from
there. But we'll just have to see how cooperative Microsoft is on that.
Otherwise I suspect we'll have more and more complaints continuing to come
in. We'll investigate those complaints and see what we can do.