05:58 PM ET 09/03/98
Judge orders Microsoft to turn over materials
By David Lawsky
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge Thursday ordered
Microsoft Corp. to turn over a host of new materials, including
Chairman Bill Gates' communications with Intel Corp., that
government lawyers said could bolster their antitrust case
against the software giant.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson rejected
Microsoft's argument that the government's information requests
dramatically expanded the landmark antitrust lawsuit less than
three weeks before the case goes to trial.
The Justice Department and 20 states sued Microsoft in May,
charging that the Redmond, Wash., company illegally maintained a
monopoly over operating system software with its Windows program
and tried to expand that dominance to Internet browser software
for the World Wide Web.
Much of the complaint focused on Microsoft's attempts to
protect its dominance by thwarting rivals Netscape
Communications Corp., maker of a popular Web browser, and Sun
Microsystems Inc., maker of the Java computer language.
At Thursday's hearing, Jackson ordered Microsoft to give
government attorneys communications between its top officials
and two other computer companies, Intel and Apple Computer ,
over recent years.
Microsoft lawyer John Warden said the new material
threatened to overwhelm the case. He said Microsoft lawyers have
prepared only to defend against allegations concerning Netscape,
Java and other narrow issues.
``There has to be an end to what we have to prepare
ourselves to defend against,'' he said.
But Judge Jackson disagreed, saying: ``My view of the case
as raised by the complaint is not quite so narrow as yours.''
Warden said Microsoft would comply with the judge's order
but said he would ask Jackson at a later hearing to exclude the
new material from being raised at the trial.
``We intend to press these points with respect to the scope
of the trial,'' he said.
If Jackson allowed the new material in the trial, Warden
said he would seek a delay in the case for six months.
Attorneys for the government gave tantalizing glimpses of
some of their evidence in a successful effort to show that the
additional materials were necessary.
Justice Department special counsel David Boies said that
when Apple Computer complained to Microsoft that Windows was
disabling its ``QuickTime'' program -- used to receive audio and
video transmissions -- Gates wrote a memo saying, effectively,
''I want to use this to get Apple to help us undermine Sun and
Java.''
Boise said that showed Microsoft was using its Windows
monopoly to enlist others to help undermine its competitor.
Stephen Houck, an antitrust lawyer for New York State,
quoted an unidentified witness who said Microsoft would ``fight
Netscape with both arms -- the operating system and the
applications arm.''
That showed Microsoft using its operating system monopoly
improperly to help win in the market for browsers, which are an
application, Houck said.
Jackson will conduct a hearing on Sept. 11 on Microsoft's
motion to end the case without a trial. The trial is set to
begin Sept. 23.
^REUTERS@
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