U.S. Is Drawn Into Netscape and Microsoft’s Internet Battle

The war between Microsoft Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp. for control over Internet software escalated this week as attorneys for the two companies exchanged sharply worded letters and Netscape sought to draw the Justice Department into the fray.

A letter dated July 30 from Microsoft senior corporate attorney Robert W. Gomulkiewicz to Netscape general counsel Roberta Katz demanded that Netscape remove from its World Wide Web site an “unfair and deceptive” chart that compares the two companies’ Web server software.

Netscape fired back with an Aug. 6 letter from its outside counsel, Gary L. Reback, a partner with the Palo Alto law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, charging Microsoft with antitrust violations in the way it is licensing its server software.

Reback, an antitrust lawyer who testified against Microsoft during an earlier phase of the Justice Department’s on-again, off-again probe of the software giant’s business practices, sent the letter to the department as well.

Justice Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona declined to comment on Netscape’s letter but said the investigation of Microsoft is ongoing. Netscape spokeswoman Roseanne Siino said the company has “routinely sent the Justice Department incidences of anti-competitive practices” on the part of its rival.

Reback said he intends “to spend the next couple of weeks turning over stones and seeing what crawls out” in an attempt to prove that Microsoft has behaved unfairly.

Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray said that antitrust allegations are unfounded.

At issue are restrictions Microsoft is placing on how customers can use its Windows NT Workstation software, an operating system for high-powered desktop computers. On its Web site, Netscape advertises its $295 Fast Track Server software and $319 Microsoft Windows NT Workstation as an inexpensive way to establish a server for putting up sites on the Internet’s World Wide Web.

But a clause in the Microsoft license limits the number of computer users who can be linked at a time to 10, making it unusable as a Web server. Microsoft says a more powerful piece of software--the $699 Windows NT Server--is appropriate for Internet use.