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WASHINGTON (AP) -Three fed
eral appeals judges, asked to consider
procedural questions in the Justice
Department’s fight against Microsoft,
instead went to the heart of die debate:
Is the company illegally trying to dom
inate its competitors?
Microsoft is appealing a judge’s
Dec. 11 preliminary injunction that
prohibited it from forcing computer
makers who sell Windows 95 to also
offer Microsoft’s Internet browser. The
company claims the browser is bun
dled so tightly within its dominant
Windows operating system that
Internet Explorer isn’t actually a sepa
rate product.
U.S. Circuit Judge Patricia M.
Wald questioned Tuesday how that
injunction was granted.
The Justice Department, which is
considering a broader antitrust case
against Microsoft, contends the soft
ware company is using its Windows
market-muscle to foist its browser on
customers unfairly, illegally squeezing
other companies’ browsers out of the
market. Government attorneys say
“tying” the sale of Windows 95 to the
use of Internet Explorer is anti-com
petitive and “plain wrong.”
The court’s decision could be
announced in one to three months.
The sometimes-esoteric debate is
important because Microsoft may,
under a 1995 agreement with the
Justice Department, develop integrat
ed products for its Wmdows operating
'
system, used on the vast majority of.
desktop computers. Microsoft’!'
Internet Explorer is second in popular!
ity only to Netscape Communication
Corp.’s browser.
In a broader sense, the fight over
browsers is vital to Microsoft because
of the Internet’s explosive popularity
and the possibility that Internet
browsers eventually could replace
Windows as software operating sys
tems.
“What it all comes down to in the
end is, what is an integrated product?”
Wald said, and much of the hearing
was spent trying to answer that ques
tion.
The Justice Department argued
that Microsoft’s current Internet
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browser is^ a stand-alone product, in
part because it had been marketed
simultaneously alongside Windows
95. Microsoft has said its original
Internet Explorer wasn’t included in
the earliest Windows 95 because of
technical delays.
“If Microsoft stopped selling the
browser separately, it’s not a violation?
Why that does make sense?” asked
Judge A. Raymond Randolph. “What’s
to prevent Microsoft from bundling a
new browser, one that’s never been
marketed, with Windows 98?”
“There may be no basis, your
honor,” answered Justice lawyer
Douglas Melamed, the deputy assis
tant attorney general for antitrust.
The third judge, Stephen F.
Williams, noted “the complete overlap
of code, or if not complete overlap then
a large degree of overlap” between
Windows 95 and Internet Explorer.
But when Microsoft defended its
right to integrate products with
Windows, Wald accused the company:
“Your position is, you can have your
cake and eat it, too?”
Microsoft’s attorney, Richard J.
Urowsky, asked the three-judge panel
to overturn the Dec. 11 preliminary
injunction because the Justice
Department had never requested such
a move. Instead, die government had \
asked U.S. District Judge Thomas
Penfield Jackson to find Microsoft in
contempt for allegedly violating that
1995 agreement.
McCartney j
describes j
last words
LONDON (AP) - Paul j
McCartney Monday broke his
silence about the death of his wife,
Linda, describing his “total heart
break” at losing her to breast cancer.
The former Beatle said his final
words to his wife of 29 years, who
died Friday, were: “You’re up on your
beautiful Appaloosa stallion. It’s a
fine spring day. We’re riding through
the woods. The bluebells were all out,
and the sky is a clear blue.”
“I had barely got to the end of the
sentence when she closed her eyes
and gently slipped away,” McCartney
said in a statement. “She was unique
and the world is a better place for
having known her.”
His statement closed with the
words: “Hove you, Linda.”
Linda McCartney whq wsts diag-;
nosed yvith cattcejr.Tn~l(9.9Si,; dre#*"
while on vacatioii in Santa Barbara,
Calif., with her husband arid children ‘
at her side. She was cremated in
California on Friday or Saturday, said
a family spokesman, Geoff Baker.
Her death was made public
Sunday.
“This is a total heartbreak,”
McCartney said. “Linda was, and
still is, the love of my life, and the
past two years we spent battling her
disease have been a nightmare. She
never complained and always hoped
to be able to conquer it.
“Her passing has left a huge hole
in our lives. We will never get over it,
but I think we will come to accept it.”
The Sun, a British tabloid, report
ed today that her ashes have been
scattered on the family farm at
Peasmarsh, 50 miles southeast of
London. It quoted an unidentified
McCartney friend as saying it was “a
quiet family occasion..,. It was very
moving - exactly what Linda would
have wanted.” >
Many paid tribute to Linda
McCartney as a talented photograph
er, vegetarianism pioneer and savvy
businesswoman.
“We were privileged to have
known her - her positive courage
through her illness was truly inspir
ing,” former Beatle Ringo Starr said
Monday.
“Everyone is diminished by her
passing,” said Beatles producer
George Martin. “Paul has to bear the
grief of not only losing his love and
the linchpin of his family but also the
best friend he ever had.”
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