By Polly Raymond, 26 November 1998 00:30
NEWS A scathing attack on yesterday's Netscape/AOL tie-up has been launched by consumer rights campaigner, James Love. In an exclusive interview with Silicon.com, Love said the deal could seriously threaten the future development of the Internet. His fear is that allowing AOL to buy Netscape will leave only two companies - the other being Microsoft - in control of the Internet. These two companies, claims Love, are only interested in creating a proprietary Internet computing environment which ties users into their own software and banishes open standards. "I think it's possible to stop the merger," said Love, speaking for the Consumer Project on Technology Group that was founded by Ralph Nader. "We're going to ask competition authorities in the US and Brussels to review the merger on the grounds that Netscape software should not be sold to the largest ISP on the Internet. We think it ought to be sold to another computer company that doesn't have the same conflicts of interest." But Clive Longbottom an independent analyst at CSL Consulting said the group's chances of stopping the deal are slim. He said their fears are over-exaggerated, and Sun's control of Netscape software will retain open standards in the equation.
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