Ex-Exec Says Microsoft Out to Break Rivals
A onetime Microsoft Corp. executive told a Senate panel Thursday that his former employer is trying to “create obstacles to the freedom and openness of the Internet” by “breaking” rival software products.
Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Rob Glaser, chief executive of RealNetworks Inc., told lawmakers that Microsoft earlier this year deliberately released a competing software program that disrupts the operation of his company’s flagship product--which enables computer users to hear live audio and view video clips from a personal computer connected to the Internet.
Glaser demonstrated the software conflict on a computer monitor at a hearing on software industry competition. When he tried to use RealNetworks’ program after installing Microsoft’s product, the screen displayed an error message that read: “Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported.”
Glaser said such tactics and Microsoft’s aggressive business practices are making “the computing world less friendly and less useful to customers and will slow down technical innovation significantly.”
Microsoft, which is a minority investor in RealNetworks, denied the allegations. In an interview outside the hearing room, Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray called Glaser’s demonstration “a misleading stunt.” Murray said the test product Glaser showed has not been publicly released and was developed after Microsoft’s competing product was introduced to the market.
The testimony of Glaser, who appeared before the Judiciary Committee along with executives from four other software firms, came as the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Justice Department is examining whether Microsoft had tried to force RealNetworks and Apple Computer Co. out of the consumer market for multimedia software.
Federal antitrust enforcers are reportedly also scrutinizing whether on-screen error messages or other technical incompatibilities in Microsoft Windows or browser software were intended to thwart Apple, RealNetworks and other rivals.
Multimedia software and so-called video streaming technology have emerged as one of the hottest areas of software development as the graphical content of the Internet grows richer and incorporates more film and audio on Web pages.
RealNetworks’ latest technology enables PC users to view television and listen to radio broadcasts on their PCs. Even on dial-up Internet connections, the sound and video seem almost as if they are coming across the airwaves, users say.
But such innovation, software developers fear, is increasingly being threatened by Microsoft’s dominance of the PC desktop.
After upgrading to the first version of Windows 95, for instance, CompuServe subscribers and users of the company’s popular Internet-In-a-Box software found their ability to dial up the online service or the Internet was disabled by Windows 95’s own dial-up software.
“Microsoft knows new technologies threaten its monopoly desktop operating system and is seeking ways to crush them before they mature,” said Lawrence Ellison, chairman of archrival Oracle Corp., a leading maker of computer database software.
But Sen. Slade Gorton, who represents Microsoft’s home state of Washington, ridiculed the hearing as a “show for unsuccessful competitors.”
Microsoft is battling federal antitrust lawsuits brought by the Justice Department and 20 states that allege the software giant’s aggressive marketing practices threaten to give it illegal dominance over the fast-emerging market for Internet Web browsing software. Microsoft has denied the allegations. Trial is scheduled for Sept. 8.
