States shoot themselves in foot
Yahoo | at | by Mike
The nine states suing Microsoft for antitrust violations said Thursday they will not call two rebuttal witnesses, a decision made after a federal judge's scolding. The states had planned to call the witnesses, including a former software tester for Microsoft, to testify that Microsoft has done much of the work needed to create the stripped-down version of the Windows operating system that the states want.
The judge ordered the states this week to give their information to company lawyers so they could prepare. Microsoft lawyer Steven Holley said the states delivered an entire computer and 67 CD-ROM discs, far more than Microsoft expected to handle. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly told Steven Kuney, the states' lawyer: "This is absolutely astounding." The judge, struggling to maintain her composure, accused Kuney of scheming to frustrate Microsoft. Kuney said he did not know that software tester James Bach would take the stand until he heard Microsoft's witnesses testify.