Gates gamble pays off for Microsoft

By Joe Wilcox, GameSpot Europe, 23 April, 2002 08:14

NEWS

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates redeemed himself as a witness on Monday, repeatedly rebuffing attacks made by states' attorney Steven Kuney in the latest phase of the four-year-old antitrust case. Gates took the offensive during the first major round of cross-examination, interrupting Kuney with technical corrections to questions and with explanations of e-mail evidence designed to catch the executive contradicting himself. Microsoft took great risk putting Gates on the witness stand, say legal experts. Gates did not testify in person during the main trial, but at the time, government lead attorney David Boies effectively impugned the Microsoft co-founder's credibility by showing select snippets of a videotaped deposition. Those portions of the tape made Gates appear either ill informed or evasive during questioning. But it was a different story this time around. "Gates' demeanor was good, and that was important for him," said Bob Lande, an antitrust professor with the University of Baltimore School of Law. "This is not the Gates we saw in the earlier deposition." The proceedings before US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, to determine a remedy for Microsoft's antitrust violations, entered their sixth week Monday. They are part of a continuing effort by nine states and the District of Columbia to bring harsher terms against Microsoft than those reached by the Justice Department and nine other states in a settlement proposed in November. Gates took surprising charge during the cross-examination. At one point, Kuney introduced a 1998 e-mail, in which Gates described Microsoft's work to render Office documents in other companies' Web browsers as "one of the most destructive things we could do to the company." Kuney tried to show that Microsoft strives to prevent its products from working with so-called middleware -- such as Web browsers -- produced by its competitors. But Gates attempted to turn the e-mail against Kuney, explaining that he sent it because employees were working on creating PowerPoint presentations that would display in other browsers and "making no progress on it." Gates invited Kuney to review the remaining e-mail messages in the string for context. The states' attorney moved on to another topic. Kuney spent much of the afternoon focused on two areas: the interoperability of Windows with other products and how that relates to technical disclosure, and whether the states' proposed remedy might allow the cloning of Windows and how Microsoft views cloning. During the early questioning, Kuney attempted to get Gates to compare certain provisions of the states' remedy against the Justice Department settlement. Kuney was supposed to restrict his cross-examination to Gates' written testimony, submitted earlier, which did not mention the DOJ settlement proposal. After several objections by Microsoft attorney Dan Webb, Kollar-Kotelly cautioned Kuney. "You're doing a very nice job of very slowly opening the door" to discussing the settlement, she said. Kuney repeatedly asked Gates if Microsoft attempted to "frustrate interoperability" between Windows and other software. In response to a question, Gates told Kuney that he never instructed anyone at Microsoft to withhold application programming interfaces (APIs) necessary for allowing third-party software to work well with Windows. Gates also emphasized Microsoft 's attempt to fully disclose APIs necessary for interoperability. "Our sharing information with developers is part of the success of Windows," Gates said. Kuney asked Gates if Microsoft applications use APIs not available to other programs. He asked Gates if he considers Office an application. "I do," Gates responded. "The state-proposed decree puts it in another category" -- middleware. Gates conceded that occasionally Microsoft discovers that Office is using an API that other programs don't have access to, but he said the company discloses the information as soon as it's discovered. Kuney and Gates also sparred over disclosure related to middleware. "It's a term of such ambiguity, you wouldn't find me using it outside of the lawsuit," Gates said. Later, Gates told Kuney about the states' definition: "Middleware is defined very broadly. It's defined explicitly to include Microsoft Office. It forces us to take the internal interfaces of Microsoft Office and publish them." That would give away for free valuable Microsoft intellectual property. Following a brief recess, Kuney moved on to the issue of cloning. In his written testimony, Gates charged that the states' level of code disclosure would allow widespread cloning of Windows. "You think cloning is a bad thing?" Kuney asked. "There's a cloning people can legitimately do, without the decree...and there's the cloning with the states' proposal in effect," Gates testified. The latter would "take away Microsoft's intellectual property (and) give it away for free." Kuney then spent a long time probing Gates about what he considered to be legitimate cloning. Gates indicated that such cloning would involve creating the same functionality as another company's product without violating that company's intellectual property rights, or by licensing those rights from the company. Kuney did score some hits against Gates, and through other questions set the stage for attacking Microsoft's chair during Tuesday's cross-examination. Gates had attacked the remedy proposal's requirements regarding the level of disclosure on how Microsoft software works with other programs, saying that it looked like developers were supposed to disclose software details before they had even conceived of the software, and thus, that under the states' remedy, once Microsoft software developers thought of a new idea, they would already be in contempt of court. But Kuney effectively depicted this as an exaggeration. Likewise, the states' attorney scored a hit on Gates' contention that access to Windows source code in a "secure facility," or a monitored location, would be enough to allow widespread cloning of Windows, despite the enormous length and complexity of the operating system's code. Assessing the points Kuney scored, the University of Baltimore's Lande concluded, "He got Gates on one contradiction and a couple of exaggerations."

Think it's all over? The antitrust case against Microsoft can still go back the to Court of Appeals, and then there's the European Commission's investigation... See ZDNet UK's DoJ/Microsoft News Section for the latest headlines. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the Microsoft forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...

42 minutes ago by tinycg on Four top iPad apps for people on the move

Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly? I thought perhaps it was something to do with...

5 hours ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...

15 hours ago by Freebies202 on Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source

"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...

23 hours ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...

1 day ago by Marg Menzies Harrison via Facebook on 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid

And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick... Kubuntu is late. Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions. cf.:...

1 day ago by zdnetukuser on Linux Minterface

@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...

1 day ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system." Point truly missed. Both use a...

1 day ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article. I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...

1 day ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...

1 day ago by Dennis Nilsson via Facebook on ACTA stumbles in Germany

I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....

1 day ago by GHar123 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...

2 days ago by JCB33 on ACTA stumbles in Germany

@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...

2 days ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel. The first bug that I found was applying the median...

2 days ago by greycynic on Ten flawed products that derail productivity

Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...

2 days ago by GrueMaster on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...

2 days ago by Frederick Wrigley via Facebook on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Excellent article. One small correction, though--although a fresh installation of Linux Mint 12 will, indeed, provide the user with a version of...

2 days ago by bdantas on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

In related news, the ISPs club together to get the members of the Home Affairs Select Committee (ya goofed on that part, ZDNet UK) copies of "The...

2 days ago by Alan Ralph via Facebook on MPs urge ISPs to take down terrorist material

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Gates gamble pays off for Microsoft

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

DOJ: Microsoft case not strong enough

Microsoft, DOJ unveil settlement report

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Heart of England NHS begins massive digitisation plan

Hard-drive woes hit PC shipments in fourth quarter

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

PHP Web Developer - html, css, javascript

Java Developer, Online Gaming, London

Quant Dev, Hedge Fund, FX, Excel VBA

Inside ZDNet UK

A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

2012 Predictions: VCE FastPath, VI SAN Probe & Hadoop

BlackBerry Bold 9790

Make faster, smarter decisions using BI

Ten factors that make Ubuntu 11.10 a hit

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10P Review

BT's archive: Pictures from the vault

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Gates gamble pays off for Microsoft

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features