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Attorneys-general disagree with the US over Microsoft

Two Democratic state attorneys-general said they might seek harsher remedies than those proposed by the Republican-run US justice department to prevent Microsoft Corp from using Win-dows XP to expand its monopoly.

A day after the Bush administration and 18 states dropped efforts to break up the software giant, attorneys general Eliot Spitzer of New York and Bill Lockyer of California raised questions about the announcement they joined. They said they will insist that Windows XP "receive close scrutiny in arriving at a judicially ordered remedy."

Windows XP, the latest version of the software that runs about 95 percent of the world's personal computers, bundles such new features as programs to play digital music, edit photos and make telephone calls on the Internet. Critics argue the system, due to be released Oct. 25, is designed to broaden Microsoft's monopoly.

"It is imperative Microsoft not have another opportunity to use Windows XP to suppress competition in emerging Internet areas," Spitzer and Locker said in a joint statement.

The new program is likely to become a focus of debate as the government and Microsoft go back to federal court for hearings on remedies. A US appeals court ordered the hearings after overturning a trial judge's decision to split Microsoft in two while agreeing the software giant illegally protected its Windows monopoly.

"The states are committed to pressing the trial court for stringent remedies that will change the conduct by Microsoft," Spitzer and Lockyer said. They said they "will, if necessary, to protect the public, press for remedies that go beyond those requested by the Department of Justice." The statement signaled a possible rift between some states and the Bush administration. Still, the leader of the 18 states said through a spokesman he is optimistic about unity.

"We are on the same page with respect to getting to remedies," said Bob Brammer, a spokesman for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. Miller, also a Democrat, "is very hopeful we will all be in this for the duration." Neither the justice department nor Microsoft would comment.

Miller said yesterday that "the only thing off the table is a breakup," leaving open the possibility some states will press for forced licensing of Windows if Microsoft doesn't abide by court-ordered conduct restrictions.

The justice department didn't mention forced licensing Thursday in saying it will seek remedies to curb Microsoft's business practices modeled on a never-enforced injunction by the trial judge in the case as an interim step before the breakup.

Those measures included requiring Microsoft to sell Windows for a uniform price to top computer manufacturers and to lift restrictions on how rival software programs are displayed in PCs.

Microsoft, which described these remedies as "devastating," would have been required to give computer makers the option of installing a version of Windows without its Internet Explorer Web browser.

A senior justice department official told reporters yesterday that any remedy would apply to the products Microsoft plans to sell in the marketplace, indicating that US antitrust enforcers would also study XP.

He said the justice department has no plans to try to block XP's release, saying remedy proceedings will likely last several months. The remedies would be designed to prevent Microsoft from continuing to defend its existing monopoly, the official said.
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