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MICROSOFT MAKES A WITNESS DISAPPEARWHY DID MICROSOFT GIVE ITS own trial witness the hook? On the eve of its historic antitrust trial in September, the software giant named Michael Dertouzos, director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science, as a technical expert. Two weeks later, after he was deposed, he was quietly dropped as a witness. That might have been the end of it, except that in court on Dec. 8, both the government and Microsoft cited Dertouzos' deposition. The government noted that Dertouzos called Web browsers applications rather than part of an operating system--which buttressed the feds' case. Microsoft fired back that Dertouzos sees the merger of browser and operating system as inevitable--which implies a competitive, but nonvenal, Microsoft. The feds said Microsoft dropped Dertouzos because he didn't support its case. Microsoft says it changed witnesses because the government altered its focus. Dertouzos is unsure why he became witness non grata but suspects he was ''a little too independent.'' The professor says he agreed to testify after Microsoft CEO Bill Gates personally phoned him last summer, promising Dertouzos that he wouldn't have to mouth the company line. Well, he didn't--and evidently, Microsoft didn't like what it heard.
By Steve Hamm
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Updated Dec. 17, 1998 by bwwebmaster
Copyright 1998, Bloomberg L.P.
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