Apple on the Stand (7/23/98)
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The Department of Justice sure is one busy little beehive, at least when it comes to investigating Microsoft's alleged anticompetitive practices. Ever since the original "Redmond Justice" case flared up last year, the DoJ has kept digging and digging to uncover more evidence of Microsoft's business tomfoolery. As of yet, they've been successful in 1) modifying the distribution requirements on an operating system that is now no longer sold, and 2) sending Microsoft's stock price to new record highs. Given the Abbott and Costello feel of the whole ongoing investigation, we at AtAT are starting to wonder if it isn't Microsoft themselves pushing the DoJ inquiries. Still, we're grateful to the DoJ for giving us plot fodder for months on end (and very possibly years to come), even though their exploits have turned out to be more slapstick comedy than courtroom drama.
But speaking of plot fodder, the whole Mac-using Microsoft-watching world now has new reason to celebrate, because the latest plot twist in the DoJ's ongoing mission directly involves our hero Apple. Whereas so far Apple has only sat on the sidelines of the whole affair, now the DoJ is investigating Microsoft's alleged attempts to get Apple to bow out of the Windows multimedia software picture in exchange for "software favors." According to a CNNfn article, apparently the proposed deal was something like this: If Apple would keep future versions of Quicktime technology off of the Windows platform, Microsoft would stand behind "Apple software tools--" which could mean any number of things, but none of them are particularly flattering to Microsoft. This kind of deal has allegedly been offered several times over the past few years, with the last such indecent proposal occurring only four short months ago. Smartly, Apple has always declined Microsoft's offers, as the release of Quicktime 3 for Windows attests. However, Microsoft may have gotten even more underhanded in response; it seems that "onscreen error messages or other technical incompatibilities" in Windows may have been deliberately introduced to dissuade end users from installing Quicktime, and that Microsoft may also have used its considering muscle on Wintel manufacturers to prevent them from loading Quicktime onto their customer systems.
The DoJ apparently plans to add evidence of this attempted bribery and racketeering to its huge pile of "bad stuff Microsoft may have done," Given how much activity seems to center around Microsoft, perhaps we should consider creating a new Department of Microsoft Investigation. Or, to avoid further taxpayer expense, we could just rename the existing DoJ, given that it seems almost 90% of its time is spent gathering evidence of Microsoft's shadiness anyway. Then we taxpayers would only have to foot the bill for new stationery and business cards.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 |  | The above scene was taken from the 7/23/98 episode: July 23, 1998: Apple gets dragged into the whole "Redmond Justice" fracas, amid allegations that Microsoft tried to squelch Quicktime for Windows. Meanwhile, TBWA Chiat/Day racks up an Emmy nomination for the "Think Different" ad, and a viewer uncovers a fiendish connection between Windows NT and a combination anti-woman anti-Oilers sentiment, or something...
Other scenes from that episode: 878: Think Award Night (7/23/98) The folks hanging around the AtAT office aren't particularly fond of most award shows. Sure, beauty pageants are always a hoot and a holler, especially when everyone clustered around the TV arrives at the conclusion that none of the entrants is particularly engaging... 879: Back, And To The Left (7/23/98) Okay, this one's just plain weird... Faithful viewer Kellie made us aware of a strange URL: <http://women.are.evil.and.icky.net/>. That alone is weird enough. But what freaks us out is that if you follow the link, you don't end up at one of the thousands of screwball misogynistic feminist-bashing "Hillary Clinton just needs a real man"-type sites on the 'net...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... |  |  |
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