At the end of the 19th century, social and economic changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution threatened the viability of capitalism. By creating antitrust law, the government successfully curtailed the worst abuses of monopoly power. Now, at the end of the 20th century, we are in the midst of the Information Revolution. The applicability of 20th century law to the 21st century economic order is being tested by recent government action against the largest of the software giants, Microsoft Corporation.

A market is characterized by increasing returns to scale when the cost of producing an additional unit of a product goes down as the quantity of the product produced goes up. Electric power and other public utilities are examples of markets that exhibit increasing returns to scale. Most of the cost of providing electric power comes from setting up the infrastructure of power lines. Once that infrastructure is in place, pumping more and more power over those lines costs little. The presence of increasing returns to scale means that large companies can produce more efficiently than small companies. A market that has

If the court finds that the agreement is valid, then the court issues a "consent decree" in effect agreeing with the terms of the parties' agreement. Netscape?s desktop web browser software has established the company as a major player in internet-related technology. The company's strategy of free distribution sent the Netscape browser from obscurity to complete dominance on desktops across the world. With a market cap of nearly $5 billion, Netscape has certainly come a long way in a short time. While Netscape was running away with web browser share in January 1995, the software giant from Redmond had only four people working on its browser. Many third party software companies are bundling Internet Explorer with theirs so they don't have to negotiate a licensing deal, which they would have to do with Netscape since it is now charging for its browser. The life of a browser version is now around six months, and it appears that a subscription model may be the method by which Netscape customers keep their browsers current. Microsoft has just introduced Explorer 3.01, which has solved many of the bugs 3.0 was plagued with, and is still free. But the "browser wars" will prove only to be a battle in a larger conflict incorporating browsers, servers, and intranet technology. This paper will examine Microsoft's upcoming introduction of Internet Explorer 4.0, also known as Nashville, which will dramatically change the strategic playing field.

· "Netscape?s Complaint against Microsoft." World Wide Web. 1-2.

Microsoft first became involved with the United States government in July of 1990, when the Federal Trade Commission began investigations of Microsoft after the company announced plans to jointly develop operating systems with IBM. When these plans dissolved, the FTC refocused their efforts towards Microsoft's general business and marketing tactics. Two years later, the four-member FTC team voted 2-2 on a proposal to instigate a legal injunction against the company. Six months later, the team reached another deadlock, thereby ending their interest and involvement in the legal issues concerning Microsoft's business practices.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corporation, Wide Web, Redmond Netscape, Department Justice, Microsoft United, Web Browsers, Trade Commission, Computer Reseller, Programming Interface, operating system, internet explorer, department justice, windows 95, world wide web, world wide, wide web, barriers entry, browser market, increasing returns, operating systems, increasing returns scale, operating system market, windows operating system, internet explorer 40,
Approximate Word count = 3389
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)