05:53 PM ET 10/08/98
Microsoft subpoenas reporter for documents used in story
PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A reporter following the legal
battles of Microsoft Corp. became a player in his own story this
week when the software giant demanded he turn over the documents
used in his stories.
Dan Goodin, who writes for Cnet Inc.'s online technology
news service, news.com (http://www.news.com), said Microsoft
subpoenaed him earlier this week to produce documents related to
two stories he wrote last month.
Goodin declined to comment on the matter, other than to
confirm receiving the subpoena. But his lawyer said Microsoft
was seeking ``any and all documents,'' including e-mail messages
that were used in two stories Goodwin wrote describing some
hardball tactics Microsoft allegedly used to undermine its
competition.
One of the stories in question, titled ``Microsoft's holy
war on Java'' describes the company's strategy to minimize the
threat from Sun Microsystems Inc. and its popular Java
programming language.
The Java language was designed to help software developers
write programs once to run on a variety of different computer
systems. Sun has sued Microsoft over its licensing agreement for
Java, saying Microsoft's use of Java in products such as the
Windows operating system and the Internet Explorer Web browser
are not compatible with Sun's version.
Goodwin, whose story cited internal Microsoft documents,
reported Microsoft sought to buy, invest in, or enter deals with
several companies in an effort to ``take mindshare away from
Sun'' -- a strategy that was so aggressive it sometimes sparked
internal division among Microsoft executives.
Microsoft was not immediately available to comment on the
subpoena, but has maintained that its strategy to compete with
Sun violated no laws.
Goodin's attorney, Kent Raygor, declined to say whether
Goodin planned to comply with the subpoena, which seeks the
return of documents by Nov. 4.
^REUTERS@
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