Ralph Nader, having aimed a new consumer campaign against Microsoft Corp.'s growing dominance in the software marketplace, will get a face-to-face meeting Thursday with representatives from Redmond.
"It's [Microsoft's] meeting," said James Love, director of Nader's Consumer Project on Technology. "We'll just find out what they want."
Nader, the 1996 Green Party presidential candidate and longtime consumer advocate, last week announced a campaign to bring Microsoft under closer government scrutiny. As part of the drive, Nader today sent a letter to the Justice Department urging an investigation into the company's giveaway of Internet Explorer 4.0 as an unfair trade practice. More than 1,500 people signed the letter.
"We're asking the government to require that Microsoft raise the cost of the browser," Love said. "Unless you believe in the tooth fairy, there will be a cost we all pay down the road."
Love called the giveaway a "brazen" tactic designed to chase rival Netscape out of the market and discourage potential competitors.
"We are concerned that if Microsoft succeeds in bankrupting Netscape or driving Netscape from the browser market, by pricing the MSE at zero, Microsoft will exercise too much power in key areas of standard-setting for Internet applications," the letter to the Justice Department said.
Repeated calls to Microsoft today were not returned.
Nader will hold a two-day conference in November on Microsoft's influence in the software market. Among those scheduled to speak is Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun Microsystems, which last week filed suit against Microsoft in US District Court charging unfair competition, trademark infringement, and breach of an agreement signed last March to license Java.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department is continuing its investigation into Microsoft's business practices, including the acquisition of VXtreme, producer of audio and video streaming technology. VXtreme is a rival to RealNetworks, maker of RealAudio and RealVideo. Microsoft bought 10 percent of RealNetworks in July.
But former Federal Trade Commission member Christine Varney, who will also speak at the Nader conference, said that bringing a case against Microsoft would be difficult if not impossible.
"The government is extremely reluctant to interfere with the market - and with the company that is seen as the driver of economic recovery in the United States," Varney said, adding that she was "very concerned" with Microsoft's business tactics.
Only a small percentage of Justice Department antitrust investigations are nonmerger, and in those cases, it is very difficult to prove intent to seize and hold onto market share, Varney said. Showing that Microsoft is trying to hold onto a monopoly based on the Internet Explorer giveaway may be unfeasible when Netscape controls 60 percent to 80 percent of the market share, Varney said.
"We don't need a jihad," Varney said.
