The Department of Justice filed a motion in Federal Court this afternoon to hold Microsoft in civil contempt for not obeying the Court's earlier injunction barring the company from tying Windows 95 to Internet Explorer. That order prohibited Microsoft from licensing any operating system software on the condition that the licensee also license and preinstall any Microsoft browser.

Microsoft announced this week that it would give computer vendors who do not want Internet Explorer tied to Windows 95 just two options: (1) the vendor may license a version of Windows 95 that Microsoft believes will not work; or (2) the vendor may license a version of Windows 95 that is two and a half years out of date and not commercially viable.

"Microsoft has gone from tying its products to tying the hands of its vendors," said Joel I. Klein, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. "The more Microsoft continues this practice, the more consumers are harmed."

In a motion before Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the Justice Department asked the court to give vendors a meaningful option of licensing Windows 95 without the browser. Specifically, DOJ asked Judge Jackson to order to offer vendors the "option of obtaining Microsoft's most current version of Windows 95 less only the software that enables web browsing functionality with no other function degraded."