United States vs Microsoft :: United States v. Microsoft

â€Å"United States v. Microsoft was a court case filed against Microsoft Corporation on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice and twenty U.S. states. The plaintiff’s alleged that Microsoft abused monopoly power in its handling of operating system sales and web browser sales†. (Wikipedia 1) Basically this means that Microsoft Corporation was accused of forming a monopoly against all other software corporations because Microsoft was selling its computers with Internet Explorer already installed on it. This way customers were getting a web browser for free almost and therefore. Microsoft sold more computers. This is known as bundling. Bundling them together is what gave Microsoft the victory in the so called â€Å"browser wars† because e very Windows user had a version of Internet Explorer installed on their computer upon purchase. Because of this advantage it was alleged to be unfair to other web browsers because it unfairly restricted the competing web browser market. The trial started in May 1998 with the US Justice Department and the Attorneys General of twenty US states suing Microsoft for illegally hindering competition in order to protect and extend its software monopoly. They were later sued because they were forcing computer makers to install IE onto the computers they sold. They threatened PC manufacturers with revoking their license to distribute Windows if they removed the IE icon from the initial desktop. (WIkipedia) Videotapes were submitted as evidence during court procedures. Among these tapes was one that demonstrated that removing IE from Microsoft Windows caused slowdowns and malfunctions. Viewers noticed that the tape had been altered because certain desktop icons would be present in once shot and then not present in another shot. Microsoft later submitted another tape which turned up to be faulty as well. The government produced its own tape of downloading other browsers onto the PC. This process was slow and the icon was not placed on the