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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (15331)	12/22/1997 4:50:00 PM
From: Daniel Schuh	Respond to of 24154

Bill Gates, Meet Your Adversary, the Antitrust Chief nytimes.com A general backgrounder, fairly long as is the fashion of the NYT when stories reach a certain critical mass. Moreover, as the No. 2 official in the antitrust division a year earlier, Klein successfully persuaded other Justice Department officials to refrain from challenging Microsoft's strategy of installing the icon of its online service, the Microsoft Network, in all Windows 95 programs, an effort by the software colossus to promote its network over such rivals as America Online. Officials said Klein had argued that that market was already competitive and that the mere presence of a Microsoft Network icon on the computer screen would not by itself enable the company to leverage its dominance in the world of operating systems into control over networks and Internet access providers. Well, I guess some icons are more sacred than others, or more profane, or something. "There was a rumor some months ago that this guy was afraid of the big guys and wouldn't attack them," said Stephen M. Axinn, an antitrust specialist in ew York. "Nobody is saying that any more. These are suddenly becoming the halcyon days for antitrust." What makes the current antitrust fight particularly significant is that the World Wide Web is emerging as the next new platform for global commerce, research and entertainment. Not since the government took on the likes of AT&T and IBM more than a generation ago has the antitrust division issued such a challenge to a corporate titan. In fact, with the decision to prosecute Microsoft, Klein has put antitrust back on the front pages and guaranteed that the division is involved in cutting-edge legal and economic issues in a way that his predecessor, Anne K. Bingaman, had tried, but with less success. "It was right and it was courageous," said Eleanor Fox, a professor of antitrust law at New York University. "He had to make a considered judgment about whether the worst problem is a monopoly or government intervention." Of course, this being the Times and not the WSJ, there's coverage of Microsoft's position too. I restrict my comments on that to another one of those little things I'm fond of pounding into the ground: His in-house legal department now has about 70 lawyers, and for the antitrust case he has retained two top-flight firms, Sullivan & Cromwell of New York and Covington & Burling of Washington. The partners at those firms involved in the case include Richard J. Urowsky, who has been the company's top advocate in court, and Charles F. Rule, one of Klein's predecessors at the Justice Department, who joined this case at the beginning of December. That's Charles F. "Rick" Rule to readers of Slate. Formerly employed by Microsoft "on unrelated matters", now his matters have apparently become a lot more related. Too bad he was ahead of his time at Justice, he'd be much more effective serving Bill from his former position. Cheers, Dan.