signor_john - 2:51 am on Dec 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

Ummm.... IE was also a knockoff of Mosaic and Microsoft was most certainly profiting from their tight integration of IE into Windows.

Microsoft paid cash ($8 million, as it turned out) to license the original code from the NSCA via Sypglass. Wikipedia's History of Internet Explorer [en.wikipedia.org] has the details for those of us whose memories benefit from hitting the "refresh" button now and then. (1995 is starting to seem like a long, long time ago!)