James Allchin conceded under cross-examination that a videotaped recreation of an experiment he conducted does not depict the same test he ran to show that Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system is impaired when its Internet browsing software is disabled.
"I am going to have to go back and find out what happened," Allchin said. "They filmed the wrong system" and "probably grabbed the wrong screen shot."
The accuracy of the test is important because the government asserts Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and Windows are products that can operate separately. Antitrust enforcers say the company combined them to protect its operating system monopoly and defeat competition from Netscape Communications, but the company says the browsing software is an integral part of Windows that enhances its performance.
Questioned about the video, Allchin was shown a series of still pictures of a computer screen. Those images purported to show tests Allchin ran to challenge government witness Edward Felten's assertion that a program he wrote disabled the browser without harming the operating system.
Allchin acknowledged to David Boies, the government's lead attorney, that a title bar at the top of the screen bearing the words "Internet Explorer" indicated the program being run on the videotaped computer was not the version of Windows 98 that included Felten's program. When questioned later by Microsoft defense lawyer Steven Holley, Allchin said Microsoft technicians checked the machine and found code from Felten's program in that computer.
Still, he and Microsoft officials couldn't explain the discrepancy. "There is a question about what happens to the title bar," Allchin said.
Boies focused on the discrepancy in the video during his cross-examination of Allchin. "This video you brought in here and vouched for to the court and testified how much you checked, that's just wrong isn't it?" Boies said.
"I do not think the Felten program had been run," Allchin said. "There are problems, I just know it."
"How in the world could your people run this program, calling it the Felten program?" Boies said.
Boies later told reporters he wasn't trying to suggest "something nefarious happened" during the tape's preparation. "I have no evidence this was done deliberately.
"What we do know is the tape they put into evidence is not reliable," Boies said. The episode, he said, was "obviously embarrassing to Microsoft."
Microsoft general counsel William Neukom said the company would investigate the discrepancy while vouching for the accuracy of Allchin's testimony. "This is a tiny, tiny part of a very long tape and it doesn't stand for anything more than things can happen with software."
Also during his cross-examination, Boies probed the reliability of the videotaped Microsoft experiment by questioning whether Allchin could rely on his technical team to do accurate work.
Allchin conceded that some of the computers used in the videotape were not "virgin machines," systems that had no other software loaded onto them other than Windows 98 and Felten's removal program.
Allchin had said that he had used such machines in the experiment to make sure that operating delays could be attributed only to Felten's program, not to other software. He conceded that some of the machines used on the video contained Microsoft Office, a popular set of word-processing and spreadsheet programs.
"You came in here and swore this was accurate?" Boies said.
"To the best of my ability," Allchin said.
"You know it does matter what you say here is right or wrong?" Boies said. "You know that matters don't you?"
"What's on the screen is the truth," Allchin said.
At a deposition last week, Allchin was asked whether he had "any personal knowledge one way or other whether these were virgin machines with just Windows 98 and just the removal program run on them?"
"Just my total trust in my team," Allchin had said at the time.
"That trust was misplaced," Boies said.
"No sir, because I have personally seen" Windows being impaired by Felten's removal program, he said.
Boies also asked Allchin to explain a March 13, 1997, email in which the Microsoft executive suggested Internet Explorer could be kept separate from the operating system.
Allchin had written that "[Internet Explorer] 4 would just plug into the [operating system] environment."
"It may not be the thing you want to do for other reasons, but it is the right thing to do for the [operating system]," Allchin said.
The government has argued that Microsoft welded the two programs together for marketing purposes, not valid technological reasons.
Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray dismissed the questioning as "essentially nit-picking an issue like video production."
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