Gates Stands Tough Through Cross-Examination

WASHINGTON -- Facing a barrage of skeptical questions, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates finished his first day on the witness stand defending predictions that the tough remedies sought by the non-settling states would devalue his company, cause the loss of key employees and its intellectual property.

The questions put by states' attorney Steve Kuney during his cross-examination of Gates were weighted with doubt, skepticism and even cynicism over assertions that the remedies would cause the "disintegration"--as Kuney put it at one point--of Microsoft.

Questioning Gates about his assertion that the remedies would lead to cloning of Windows, Kuney asked icily: "Does that somehow not happen when Microsoft is cloning other people's software?" At another point, he asked how competitors could copy millions of lines of Windows source code the remedy would allow them to see. "By memorizing?" he asked.

Calm, Cool, and Collected

Throughout, Gates kept his poise and stuck to his arguments, a sharp contrast from the videotape deposition introduced during the opening days of the antitrust trial in the fall of 1998. Those videos showed Gates being argumentative and uncooperative to the point of eliciting laughter from trial Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson and spectators. There was no laughter in the courtroom Monday.

In response to Kuney's claim that rivals could memorize source code, Gates said matter-of-factly it was not something he said in his prepared remarks. In response to the cloning challenges, Gates insisted that language in the state's remedy was such that cloning would occur.

Presented with several pieces of evidence, including one dating back to 1995 where Microsoft officials had used the word cloning, Gates challenged the context in each memo. Indeed, in many cases Gates and Kuney had an ongoing give-and-take over the meaning of words, phrases, and definitions, such as "utilize," "full feature and functionality," and "interoperate" in the remedy.

Gates, who will return to the witness stand Tuesday, took the stand shortly after noon on Monday.