At the time of this writing, a U.S. antitrust case against Microsoft is ongoing. The judge in the case, Thomas Penfield Jackson gave his Finding of Fact on November 5, 1999. The [Outside Econweb] U.S. Department of Justice claimed, and the judge seems to agree, that Microsoft has a monopoly in the personal computer operating system market. As we know, monopoly is not per se illegal but must be judged according to the rule of reason. The U.S. Justice Department claimed that Microsoft uses its monopoly power to coerce competitors and that it also is in violation of a consent decree agreed to in a 1995 antitrust trial.

A Finding of Fact is not a determination of guilt or innocence nor is it a determination of a remedy (the rough equivalent of the sentence in a criminal trial). It is simply what the judge believes was proved during the trial.

According to Judge Jackson: "Microsoft's interactions with Netscape, IBM, Intel, Apple, and RealNetworks all reveal Microsoft's business strategy of directing its monopoly power toward inducing other companies to abandon projects that threaten Microsoft and toward punishing those companies that resist."

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