Industry Standards in Computing Litigation

Abstract It is unlikely that a forensic engineer or an attorney will use what is in this chapter in their work. Why do we then include in this monograph a discussion of the monopoly case against Microsoft by the United States Department of Justice? The answer is that this chapter is included to demonstrate that an industry standard (a common practice , a de facto engineering standard ) can emerge naturally in the market place through aggressive activities of one or more companies in a technology. In the case of the computing industry, the Windows operating system is a de facto industry standard . We can learn a great deal about studying such a de facto standard, the principal result being that we realize that once a de facto industry standard exists we will rarely see any innovations in the technology it represents; to try to improve on an industry standard that is well entrenched is an uphill battle with no committee to speak with in a standards-setting organization. Indeed, to speak with anyone would threaten the business base of the company that controls the standard.