Microsoft Backs Off Java Legal Wording, According to a Report on CMP's TechWire (http://www.techwire.com)

Technology News Site Also Features Analysis of the New Internet Domain Name Plan, Extensive MACWORLD Coverage

PRNewswire
MANHASSET, N.Y.
Jan 5, 1997

Microsoft is rewording its Java licensing agreement to calm user fears that Java applications created with the company's Java development tools will be legally bound to run exclusively on the Windows family of operating systems, according to a report by CMP's CommunicationsWeek posted tonight on TechWire (http://www.techwire.com/).

According to the report, the license change, which Microsoft officials have described as a legal technicality, comes as some large user organizations have balked at using Microsoft's Java SDK and Visual J++ to develop their Java-based applications, fearing that they would be locked into the Windows environment. The current licensing agreement prevents users of these products from legally developing platform-independent Java programs for the Web.

TechWire also posted Sunday night several other significant technology news stories:

  -- Support appears to be dwindling for a proposal that expands the number
     of top-level domains on the Internet and designates registration
     authorities to assign them, according to CommunicationsWeek.

  -- The configurations and details of major pieces of unannounced hardware
     from HP, Digital Equipment and ALR are disclosed in several stories
     from CommunicationsWeek and Computer Reseller News.

  -- Extensive MACWORLD Expo coverage will also be appearing on TechWire,
     including a Computer Reseller News report of a new Microsoft group
     dedicated to Macintosh application development and a dangerously high-
     level of inventory at Apple.  Continuing coverage will include TechWire
     staff stories as well as stories from dozens of other CMP journalists
     covering the event.

CMP's TechWire™ is an international news wire service owned by CMP's TechWeb®, the technology super site. TechWire was singled out in a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle. "The site's international focus and investigative reporting make for some juicy reading that you won't find elsewhere on the Net," the Chronicle wrote.

TechWeb is a leader in engineering new sites and features to address the unique needs of various high-tech audiences, particularly high-end, technology-savvy users who are responsible for buying technology for themselves and others. In recent months, TechWeb has launched more than six individual sites, all free to users, all advertiser-supported and all filling a gap left open by other high-tech sites. Recent additions include TechTools™, TechCalendar™, TechInvestor™, TechPrice™ and TechHelper™.

CMP Media Inc., now in its 25th year of uninterrupted growth, is the only provider of publishing, marketing and information services to reach the entire spectrum of the high-technology market--the builders, sellers and users of technology. With sales of $420 million projected for 1996, CMP has marked a quarter century of success with an average yearly growth of 20 percent.

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SOURCE: CMP Media Inc.

CONTACT: Evan Schuman, 201-993-9117, or eschuman@cmp.com, or Steve Rubel,
CMP Corporate Communications Specialist, 516-562-7434, or srubel@cmp.com.,
both of CMP Media, Inc.