Bill Gets Grilled on Capitol Hill

Members of the Senate judiciary committee were sharply critical in questioning about Microsoft's attempts to pu sh its Internet Explorer browser through content providers in Tuesday's hearing on software-industry competition.

Led by committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), senators questioned Microsoft CEO Bill Gates for several tense minutes about whether Microsoft restricts Internet Explorer channel content providers from advertising or promoting Netscape products.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft said just days before the hearing it was abandoning the exclusionary arrangements it had signed with ISPs. Under the terms of those agreements, the ISPs to which Microsoft referred users were prevented from promoting Netscape's Navigator browser. Microsoft decided to change that practice after it became a focus of criticism, Gates told committee members.

"Every Internet content provider that has a business relationship with Microsoft is free to develop features that use competitors' technology," Gates said. "There are many content providers who are on the Microsoft channel bar that promote Netscape."

But a fter repeated questioning, Gates conceded that IE content providers create a special page to receive referrals from the IE channel, and are not allowed to promote Navigator.

"They are free to promote their content in other places, but not off the page we link to," he said. These pages made up only a tiny percentage of Internet traffic, he said, comprising less than 0.1 percent of total Net destinations.

Gates also said a small number of key IE "platinum" content providers were excluded from paying Netscape to be carried on Netscape content channels. "There is a period of time where if you're in our channel guide, you are restricted from paying to be in a Netscape channel for that period of time," he said.

After the hearing, Hatch said Microsoft's agreements with channel content providers "came pretty close to exclusionary."

Hatch and ranking Democratic member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) appeared frustrated at Gates' refusal to concede his company holds an effective monopoly position, or had b een able to use its power to influence other companies' business decisions.

Hatch cited several published quotes from Gates and other Microsoft executives that apparently showed plans to drive Netscape out of business by giving away IE. "That sounds like predatory pricing to me," Hatch said.

Gates called at least one of the citations a misquote, but said competition still let users use whatever browser or operating system they thought was best. "Customers have never had such a choice of great software," he said. "Anybody can choose whatever software they want."

"Not if there's predatory pricing. Not if there's monopolistic behavior," Hatch responded. "It isn't just the business of selling software -- it's the business of selling it fairly."

After the hearing, Hatch said he wasn't completely satisfied with Gates' testimony. "I would have liked it to have been stronger and more forthright," he said.

Hatch called Tuesday's hearing a "fact-finding" session, and promised to hold further h earings exploring the issue of software-industry competition.