Hatch on Microsoft: Senator Orrin Hatch has a definite and concisely stated opinion about Microsoft's apparent desire to control its clients' conversations with the government.
Hatch, a Utah Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, was asked today whether he thinks it's legal for Microsoft to require computer-makers to inform the company before they talk to government officials as a condition of getting licenses for Redmond's software.
His answer: "Nope."
The issue has arisen as part of the Justice Department's new antitrust case against Microsoft, which alleges the company has coerced PC-makers to bundle its Internet Explorer browser onto their machines.
Government attorneys want US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to strike down such nondisclosure clauses, arguing that they could hamper the federal investigation. For its part, Microsoft has written a letter assuring prosecutors that such clauses do not apply to companies' discussions with the Justice Department.
In Washington today, Jackson announced a schedule for the next several hearings in the case. Microsoft must respond in writing to the 21 October federal complaint on 10 November; the government's response to the response is due 20 November; the parties are to appear together before Jackson on 5 December.
— Workstation exports: The House has passed a military authorization bill that includes a provision that could, if it becomes law, interfere with overseas sales of future generations of desktop workstations.
The provision, by way-left Representative Ron Dellums (D-California) and un-left Republican colleague Floyd Spense of South Carolina, would require exports of computers capable of 2,000 million theoretical operations per second - MTOPS, for short - to get special Commerce Department approval. The provision, part of the final bill wrought by House and Senate conferees, is explicitly aimed at limiting the spread of high-end computing technology to Russia, China, and other countries that could use them for strategic projects like nuclear weapons design or testing.
But computer-industry observers say that by the end of next year, computers shipping with high-end Pentium chips and other microprocessors could well exceed 2,000 MTOPS and fall into the class of machines that need special Commerce approval. The Senate takes up the bill next. The Clinton administration has discussed vetoing the bill if it passes both houses.
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Library fight: The ACLU is targeting Kern County, California, for its first constitutional challenge to Internet filtering software installed in public libraries. National staff attorney Ann Beeson says the American Civil Liberties Union has been gathering plaintiffs in the Bakersfield area to fight a 1996 county Board of Supervisors decision to install software-maker N2H2's Bess censorware on all county library computers.
"It's a very strong case in that the product is blocking access to valuable sites. [And] it's the one on the fastest track from the ACLU," said Beeson.
Kern County Counsel B. C. Barmann said Tuesday that he believes the policy is legal and protects minors from obscene graphics on the Internet.
If both sides stand their ground, Beeson expects that the ACLU will file its case anywhere from two to six weeks from now.
Jennifer Eno and Dan Brekke of the Wired News staff contributed to this report.
