too little too late: SPA takes on M$

["Attila T. Hun" <attila@hun.org>]

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>>> too little and too late, SPA takes on Microsoft

    this might have been a good action in so much as they 
    are well entrenched, in part on M$' money, as Washington
    lobbiests. now, with Lessig's role as the court 
    appointed expert suspended by the appeals court until a
    21 Apr hearing (submissions due in early April), their
    voice will be lost in the court action. any action they
    stimulate with Orrin Hatch's judiciary is a) too late;
    too slow --at least two years; 3) of little consequence 
    as Congress can not legislate against a specific company
    --they can legislate by regulation against an industry; 
    and, 4) more importanty, the Appeals Court castrated
    Johnson's order for the special administrator. 

    still, it is another voice; even though the guidelines 
    are bland, there is no mistalking who the target is; 
    and, in typical M$' fashion they are threatening to drop
    their membership instead of renewing in August.

    there are three areas where M$ is exercising monetary
    influence, even control of the agenda, in legislation or
    justice: the DOJ action with their crying to Daddy (the
    appeals court), the SPA guidelines which they intend to
    force SPA to withdraw, and as part of the closed circle
    negotiating the rules on intellectual property and trade
    for the Western Hemisphere free trade zone --closed
    meetings.

    as I said: Gate$ makes Cornelius Vanderbilt look like a 
    choir boy.


Software group takes on Microsoft 
By Courtney Macavinta
February 2, 1998, 5:05 p.m.  PT

As the federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft barrels
forward, a prominent high-tech trade association tomorrow
will release a list of competition principles that strike at
the heart of the case and angered the software giant.

The Software Publishers Association (SPA) hasn't officially
responded to the Justice Department's accusations that
Microsoft violated a 1995 consent decree by requiring
computer makers to bundle its Internet Explorer browser as a
condition of licensing its Windows 95 operating system.  But
the new guidelines echo some of its smaller members' and the
government's complaints regarding Microsoft.

The SPA's guidelines come one day after New York State's
attorney general said he and ten other state prosecutors
subpoenaed Microsoft for evidence of potentially illegal
bundling of Windows and Internet software.  In addition, the
Senate Judiciary Committee and regulatory agencies from
Japan and the European Union also are looking into
Microsoft's business practices.  (See related story)

The SPA says it set out to develop the principles to define
its role in the fair competition debate, which focuses on
its largest member.  The SPA has been sought for advice by
lawmakers in the past, and it states that the new principles
are intended to "guide government officials" in antitrust
enforcement.

Hitting home with Microsoft foes, the SPA principles state:
"Operating systems should not be used to unfairly favor its
own products and services, or its favored partners, over
those competing vendors.  The operating system vendor should
not include its own services or products as part of the
operating system or user interface unless it gives the same
ability to integrate products and services into the
operating system to competing vendors."

The SPA went on to state that "the tying of certain
applications to the sale of other applications has the
effect of restraining competition among independent software
vendors for the 'virtual shelf space' of [PC makers]."
Dominant operating systems also should not "favor Internet
content" that it owns or licenses, according to the
guidelines.

The principles say that healthy competition is reliant on
equal access to retail customers.  On the other hand,
pre-announcing products that do not exist yet, so-called
vaporware, stifles competition.

Prior to developing the principles, the 1,200-member group
surveyed its domestic members.  Of the 164 that responded,
anticompetitive activity was a top concern.  As reported in
January, the issue also took the spotlight at two scheduled
meetings in Santa Clara, California.  The SPA's Government
Affairs Committee even met with Joel Klein, the Justice
Department's lead attorney in the lawsuit against Microsoft.

Microsoft fired back today, calling the SPA's process
"short-sighted" and the publication of the principles
"self-destructive."  The company also quipped that it is
undecided on whether it will renew its SPA membership, which
expires in August.

Although Microsoft was present at the SPA's California
meetings last month, so were some of its main competitors,
such as Novell, Netscape Communications, Apple Computer, and
Oracle Corporation.

"It's unfortunate that a handful of Microsoft's competitors
are trying to use the SPA to drive a wedge into the software
industry.  This whole process has been such an obvious
attack on Microsoft," Mark Murray, a spokesman for the
company, said today.

"I think the primary impact of this is that the SPA will be
discredited, and that it will weaken their ability to serve
as a legitimate voice," he added.

The SPA knew its principles would be searched for hidden
meaning regarding the Microsoft case, but the group contends
it wasn't targeting the company.

"The principles are not intended to prescribe remedies that
might be applied by federal and state antitrust enforcers to
any particular company or set of circumstances," SPA
president Ken Wasch said in a statement.  "Nor are these
principles a call for general regulation of our industry.
Rather, the principles reflect an industry consensus of how
some business practices promote or impair strong
competition."

Still, for a group with no regulatory power, the SPA's
opinion will hold some weight.  The group is expected to
testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee when it holds
hearings on issues of competition in the high-tech industry
this year.

Moreover, the new principles amend the organization's
existing guidelines, which were presented to the Federal
Trade Commission during a hearing two years ago.  During the
hearing, the SPA advised the government to carefully
scrutinize companies that allegedly impede others from
getting space on retail store shelves.  The SPA also took
the position that owners of dominant operating systems
should release essential technical information to other
developers.  Both points remain in the new eight-point plan.

The remaining SPA competition principles include:

Maximize innovation to benefit consumers.

The owners of dominant operating systems should license
their "interface specifications to any third party for the
purposes of developing application software."

"Barriers" should not be put up by dominant operating
systems that limit consumers' or hardware makers' ability to
reconfigure their desktops or utilize any software or online
content services.

Software vendors "should not intentionally disable, cripple,
or otherwise interfere with the intended functionality and
execution of other products."

Operating systems should not prohibit Web sites from
"exploiting the access capabilities of competing products"
or force sites to display and promote their products.


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