EXCLUSIVE WASHINGTON — Even before Microsoft announced its new online services plan — dubbed Hailstorm — on Monday, some of the company's leading competitors were quietly registering complaints about the effort with government antitrust regulators. The competitors, including AOL Time Warner and Sun Microsystems, allege that Hailstorm and other pieces of Microsoft's .Net initiative are designed to limit their access to customers and further leverage Microsoft's dominant Windows market share.
On Friday, AOL TW officials had a breakfast briefing with several state attorneys general involved in the government's pending antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, which is under review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. AOL TW raised concerns that Microsoft's new products could create a choke point on the Internet for e-commerce, instant messaging and downloadable music.
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