A few hours before the justice department recommended splitting Microsoft, TIME spoke to Joel Klein, the U.S. Assistant Attorney General for antitrust, who spearheaded the landmark case against the software giant.
Q. Your contention seems to be that breaking Microsoft in two is not really all that radical a remedy.
A. This is far less radical than trying to impose rules on Microsoft's behavior. This solution puts its faith in the marketplace to govern conduct rather than having the government try to regulate what can go into an operating system. That would require more intrusive ongoing supervision and have greater...