By Dan Jones in Washington
As the testimony of America Online Inc’s senior vice president of business affairs David Colburn leaked into a second day, some at the antitrust trial in Washington DC started to suspect Microsoft Corp’s lead defense attorney John Warden of employing delaying tactics. Warden repeatedly questioned Colburn about the suitability of Netscape’s browser for the AOL consumer client service, and once more put forward allegations that AOL had engaged in anti-competitive practices. The reason for delaying tactics might be supposed to be the much anticipated videotape of Bill Gates’ deposition, snippets of which were shown on the first day of the trial. The government side had been expected to show up to three hours of the deposition tape either yesterday or the day before – an hour of which had been added at Redmond’s request. However, as live witnesses take precedence over taped depositions, and Colburn’s testimony had taken so much longer than expected, Department of Justice officials could give no time frame for when any of the Gates tape, which is six or seven hours in total length, would be shown. When questioned over whether he thought Warden was trying to drag out the testimony, the DoJ’s lead attorney David Boies declared, I don’t want to touch that. However, sources close to the Justice department did confirm the government view of Warden’s lengthy cross-examination sessions as filibustering. Microsoft denied the charges, saying that their man was simply going through the testimony step by step, brick by brick. Senior vice president of software engineering at Apple Computer Corp, Avadis Tevanian, will be next to take the stand when the trial resumes on Monday.
