[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 106 (Friday, July 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S9554]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               MICROSOFT

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, the U.S. Senate is the world's greatest 
deliberative body. The U.S. economy is the world's greatest free 
market. Lately, it seems my friend and colleague from Utah, Senator 
Hatch, the distinguished chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 
would like to use the one to squash the other.
  As my colleagues and most Americans know, Senator Hatch has joined 
forces with the success-busters of the Antitrust Division of the 
Department of Justice to carve out a special place in the market for 
companies that cannot compete on their own merits. All of this is being 
done at the expense of one of America's most successful and innovative 
companies--Microsoft.
  Last week, the Judiciary Committee, for the third time this year, 
served as a forum for frustrated business executives who have been 
outsmarted and out-innovated by Microsoft.
  I have continually voiced my objections at the Senate Judiciary's 
Committee's insistence on inserting itself into battles that should be 
fought in the free market, not in the Halls of the U.S. Senate or in 
the Justice Department. I have asserted my opinion that U.S. antitrust 
laws were written with the intent of protecting consumers, not inferior 
companies. And I have stood up against those who would like to see the 
federal government, not the free market, decide which companies are 
successful in this country and which are not.

  But Senator Hatch has offered his committee as a haven for the 
unwashed masses of corporate America, sheltering the weak and wary from 
the harsh brutality of the free market.
  This debate has been just that, Mr. President, a debate between two 
Senators with very different opinions on a matter of importance to both 
Senators and to the nation as a whole.
  Earlier this week, however, I learned of something that troubles me 
deeply, both as a Senator and as an American.
  In the July 29, issue of Investor's Business Daily Senator Hatch was 
interviewed about his views on Microsoft. As my colleagues will recall, 
one of the witnesses at last week's hearing was Rob Glaser, CEO of a 
company in my home state called RealNetworks, a Microsoft competitor. 
Allegations arose at the hearing, supported by an affidavit from a 
senior Microsoft executive, that Mr. Glaser had attempted to use his 
testimony as a negotiating tool in his ongoing battle with Microsoft.
  According to the affidavit, Mr. Glaser, the night before he was to 
testify before the Judiciary Committee, called a senior Microsoft 
executive and offered to ``negotiate all night if that's what it 
takes'' to come to terms with Microsoft. The affidavit states that 
``Mr. Glaser said that if the negotiations he proposed . . . resulted 
in an agreement between the two companies, he would not testify the 
next day.
  These allegations are disturbing to me, and I had hoped, to Senator 
Hatch as well.
  But Senator Hatch, in his interview with Investor's Business Daily 
seems to support Mr. Glaser's attempt to use the Judiciary Committee as 
a tool in his negotiations with Microsoft.
  When asked about the allegations, Senator Hatch said, ``Glaser said 
he did not (use the testimony as a negotiating weapon), but what if he 
did? He's a guy trying to save his business. . .'' The distinguished 
Senator from Utah goes on to say of witnesses that testify before his 
committee, ``if they gain something by coming, all the better as far as 
I'm concerned, as long as they tell the truth.''
  It may be incidental to this attitude, Mr. President, but important 
in the public's mind that it turns out that Microsoft Media Player 5.2 
did not disable RealNetworks' new G-2 player--in fact, the culprit was 
a bug in the player itself--not only in Microsoft's tests, but in those 
of a number of independent experts as well. So far, Senator Hatch has 
ignored this unpleasant news.
  Our founding fathers must be turning over in their graves, Mr. 
President. The United States Senate was never intended to be, and 
should never be, used as negotiating tool for companies trying to 
compete in the free market. In fact, the United States Senate was 
designed, among other things, to protect that very free market. That 
should continue to be our goal.

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