Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept. (NYT)

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Source: New York Times

Microsoft Finds Legal Defender in Justice Dept.

By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: June 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 9 — Nearly a decade after the government began
its landmark effort to break up Microsoft, the Bush administration has
sharply changed course by repeatedly defending the company both in
the United States and abroad against accusations of anticompetitive
conduct, including the recent rejection of a complaint by Google.

The retrenchment reflects a substantially different view of antitrust
policy, as well as a recognition of major changes in the marketplace.
The battlefront among technology companies has shifted from computer
desktop software, a category that Microsoft dominates, to Internet
search and Web-based software programs that allow users to bypass
products made by Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker.

In the most striking recent example of the policy shift, the top antitrust
official at the Justice Department last month urged state prosecutors to
reject a confidential antitrust complaint filed by Google that is tied to
a consent decree that monitors Microsoft’s behavior. Google has accused
Microsoft of designing its latest operating system, Vista, to discourage
the use of Google’s desktop search program, lawyers involved in the case
said.

The official, Thomas O. Barnett, an assistant attorney general, had until
2004 been a top antitrust partner at the law firm that has represented
Microsoft in several antitrust disputes. At the firm, Justice Department
officials said, he never worked on Microsoft matters. Still, for more than
a year after arriving at the department, he removed himself from the
case because of conflict of interest issues. Ethics lawyers ultimately
cleared his involvement.

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/business/10microsoft.html