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To: Spartex who wrote (25263)	2/2/1999 2:07:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Unbelievable! Tuesday February 2 1:15 PM ET Microsoft Accused About Video By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - In a dramatic courtroom confrontation, the government today accused Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) of falsifying a video demonstration aimed at showing severe performance problems after government attempts to modify its popular Windows 98 software. ''I believe from what I've seen here is, they filmed the wrong system,'' said James Allchin, a senior vice president and top computer scientist at Microsoft. He later added: ''I'm not sure they would do anything like that'' to mislead the judge. Justice Department lawyer David Boies stopped the video demonstration in midframe to show a subtle inconsistency: a software title bar that suddenly changes in the middle of the test. The video had been played in court Monday. Boies charged - and Allchin acknowledged - the change indicated that the test actually was completed using a version of Windows unaffected by the government's modifications. ''This video you brought in here and showed for the court, that you checked it ... and that's just wrong, right?'' Boies snapped. ''In this particular case, I do not think the (government) program had been run,'' Allchin conceded. But he insisted that performance problems exist: ''I personally tested this, and I know the problem exists.'' Around the courtroom where the government's antitrust suit against the software giant is being heard, Microsoft's lawyers looked crestfallen. A spokesman, Tod Nielsen, rushed into the hallway with a cellular telephone. Boies appeared jubilant as he pressed onward: ''How in the world could your people have run this program? ... You do understand you came in here and swore this was accurate?'' ''They probably filmed it, grabbed the wrong screen shot,'' Allchin answered. ''What's on the screen is the truth. Obviously, there were mistakes done there.'' Computer scientist Edward Felten of Princeton University testified previously for the government that he was able to disable Microsoft's Internet software included within Windows. Allchin responded that the government's efforts slowed some functions sevenfold and prevented other programs from running at all. He derided Felten's attempts as a ''Rube Goldberg mechanism'' that made Windows ''effectively useless in a commercial sense.'' The government alleges that under federal ''tying'' laws, Microsoft's design forces consumers who use Windows also to use its browser, discouraging them from using popular rival software from Netscape Communications Corp. (Nasdaq:NSCP - news) Microsoft has steadfastly denied charges that it illegally bundled its Internet browser into newer versions of Windows to trounce Netscape. It maintains that it can't be guilty of ''tying'' those products because its browser is a component of Windows, not a separate software program. The company could be in for additional challenges. It must square that legal defense with an apparently inconsistent admission by some of its own lawyers. In paperwork for an obscure U.S. patent awarded in August 1998 - months after the government launched its landmark antitrust case - Microsoft lawyers wrote: ''It should be understood by those skilled in the art that a Web browser, such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, ... is separate from the operating system.'' Boies said the government learned about the patent application over the weekend and likely would confront Allchin with the document later today. Boies noted that the filing came from the company's patent lawyers, who aren't involved in formulating its antitrust defense. ''What it shows is that when people are off doing their work, not related to this lawsuit, they know they are separate products,'' Boies said. Company spokesman Mark Murray said patent lawyers were referring to alternate versions of Microsoft's browser designed to run on rival operating systems, such as on Macintosh or Unix computers. The patent filing, involving online banking, also describes software programs asking the operating system to retrieve data from a particular Internet address - a technique Microsoft says is consistent with its notion of an Internet-savvy Windows. ''Anyone who has read the document would understand it supports our case,'' Murray said.