Justice opposes Microsoft request to have expert removed

In this story:

• Calls charges 'unfounded, overblown'
• E-mail 'unrelated' to case
• Related stories and sites

January 5, 1998
Web posted at: 7:54 p.m. EST (0054 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Justice Department fired another salvo in its case against Microsoft Monday by opposing the company's request that a Harvard professor be removed as an expert in the case.

The government filed a motion saying that Microsoft has made "unfounded and overblown" accusations against Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, who is a "special master" in the case.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson appointed Lessig to help him with the highly technical aspects of the government's case against Microsoft.

The government says Microsoft has used its dominance with Windows 95 software to compete unfairly with Netscape and other Internet browser marketers.

Jackson issued an injunction on December 11 to prevent Microsoft from requiring computer makers to put its browser on all computers using Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system. Lessig's appointment was part of that order.

A week after the injunction, the Justice Department accused Microsoft of ignoring the judge's order and asked Jackson to find Microsoft in contempt of the order and fine the firm $1 million a day.

Government says e-mail unrelated to case

Microsoft retaliated with a motion December 23 demanding that Jackson rescind Lessig's appointment because he had e-mailed someone at Netscape Communications Corp. asking whether Microsoft's Web browser might have "screwed up" his Web page "bookmarks."

Microsoft said in a letter -- quoted in the government filing -- that the e-mail exchange shows Lessig has "actual bias against Microsoft" and proves he is "a partisan of Netscape." Microsoft and Netscape are bitter rivals in the market for Web browsers.

But the government says it is "unremarkable" that Lessig knew people in the computer industry and said that whatever happened on Lessig's computer -- an Apple -- was "unrelated to any of the technical or legal issues in this case."

Jackson will conduct a hearing on the case January 13. Although he is expected to take a few days to rule after the hearing, officials say he may decide to rule on the contempt motion and the motion on Lessig at the same time.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Special section:

• Target: Microsoft

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• Microsoft: Anticompetitive practices?

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• Is Windows 98 a chip off the old block? - December 23, 1997
• Microsoft: Stripped-down Windows 95 complies with court - December 23, 1997
• Judge sets contempt hearing in Microsoft antitrust suit - December 19, 1997
• Rivals unite to fight Microsoft - November 16, 1997

Related sites:

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• U.S. v Microsoft Corp., Final Judgement - from the 1994 lawsuit
• Microsoft

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