Punishment is the next phase

Next on Jackson’s agenda will be determining what punishment to inflict upon Microsoft. The options before Jackson range from breaking up the company to changing the way it does business. Jackson could prohibit Microsoft from using price as a way to punish clients who deal with competitors and forcing the company to relinquish control of the PC desktop, which is the Windows Desktop deigned and controlled by Microsoft’s Windows OS. This way, future PCs would

likely offer radically different working environments, giving innovative companies a competitive edge.

He could also order Microsoft to license or even surrender, the Windows OS

source code. And while the government dropped its pursuit of a breakup during

recent settlement attempts, Jackson's ruling may have emboldened Justice

attorneys to ask for the toughest penalty possible.

Joel Klein, who heads the Justice Department's antitrust division, said the

government will seek actions "that will protect consumers, innovation and

competition by putting an end to Microsoft's widespread and persistent abuse of

its monopoly power, and to rectifying its unlawful attempt to monopolize the

Internet browser market." Analyst said Microsoft could help its own case by

once again agreeing to settlement talks that could quickly end the entire

affair. For now, however, the company appears determined to tie up the case in

court for years to come and hope for an eventual reversal of Jackson’s

decision.

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