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        JUSTICE SEEKS $1 MILLION A DAY CONTEMPT FINE AGAINST MICROSOFT
                                       
     Microsoft logo October 20, 1997
     Web posted at: 1:29 p.m. EDT (1729 GMT)
     
     WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department asked a federal court
     Monday to hold the computer software giant Microsoft Corp. in
     contempt for requiring personal computer manufacturers to license
     and distribute its Internet browser.
     
     The department said the company violated a 1995 court order the
     government obtained to bar the company from anticompetitive
     licensing practices. The government sought a $1 million a day fine.
     
     "Microsoft is unlawfully taking advantage of its Windows monopoly to
     protect and extend that monopoly," Attorney General Janet Reno told
     reporters. Janet Reno
     
     "This is a very serious abuse," said Assistant Attorney General Joel
     I. Klein, head of the antitrust division. He said Microsoft's action
     was designed to undermine the dominant market position of its major
     competitor for Internet browsers, Netscape.
     
     Internet browsers are important, Klein said, because they "could
     erode Microsoft's operating system monopoly" in the Windows
     operating system. "This kind of product forcing is an abuse of
     monopoly power and we seek to put an end to it."
     
     Klein emphasized that the Justice Department is still investigating
     other practices by Microsoft but declined to give details.
     
     The Justice Department objected to Microsoft's requirement that
     computer manufacturers who want to license the Windows 95 operating
     system also license its internet browser, known as Internet
     Explorer. Most personal computer makers install Windows 95 at the
     factory.
     
     Klein said, "These are two different products." He said they should
     be sold as two separate products, but he adamantly said the
     government was not taking sides in the war for browser market share
     between Microsoft and Netscape, whose browser is known as Navigator,
     or any other company.
     
     "Each of Microsoft's products should compete on its own merits,"
     Klein said.
     
     Copyright 1997   The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
     material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
     redistributed.
     
   
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