Gates testimony impresses

Bill Gates shows a united front with wife Melinda

By Kevin Anderson BBC News Online Washington reporter

Bill Gates kept his cool for a second day in court, continuing his performance as Microsoft's star witness.

The non-settling states did score a few points against the Microsoft master, but the company's chief software architect again held up well under intense questioning.

And legal experts say that Mr Gates' testimony may help head off the stiffer penalties sought by the non-settling states.

Verbal jousting

The appearance of the world's richest man has provided some excitement in hearings that have otherwise bogged down in dense legalese and techno-babble.

One reporter has taken to bringing a seat cushion more commonly seen at sporting events than in courtroom, but it spares him some discomfort from the hard wooden court benches.

But despite the star power of Bill Gates, the testimony still is dense and court watchers much be fluent in the arcane alphabet soup of acronyms from the high-tech world - APIs, ISVs and OEMs, just to name a few.

States still pursuing Microsoft

California

Connecticut

Florida

Iowa

Kansas

Massachusetts

Minnesota

Utah

West Virginia

District of Columbia

The states' Steven Kuney continued his strategy of trying to show that Mr Gates is overstating the potential negative impact of the states' proposed remedies on Microsoft.

Critics of Microsoft and the non-settling states have portrayed Microsoft's pessimistic predictions of the impact of their proposed remedies as doomsday scenarios.

They point out that Mr Gates seems to be ignoring the fact that the company has been convicted of breaking the law, and that punishments are meant to hurt.

While Mr Kuney made some ground in portraying Mr Gates' reading of the proposed remedies as overly grim, the software magnate made a point that the remedies could be used to prevent Microsoft from quickly issuing security patches.

Such patches might be barred because the states want to require Microsoft to give 60 days notice before it makes changes to Windows that might degrade performance of other companies' software, and Mr Gates said that security patches necessarily degrade performance because extra code is involved.

Mr Kuney was able to score some points.

Mr Gates admitted that one of the states' remedies would have prevented Microsoft from bullying Apple and Intel.

Impressive performance

But again, for a second day, Mr Gates remained cool under Mr Kuney's fierce cross-examination.

He has even kept a sense of humour. Mr Gates has criticised many terms in the states' proposal as ambiguous or overbroad.

When asked to comment about the meaning of a heading and the subsequent text, he quipped with a smile, "In the states' proposed remedy, I never think that a heading describes what comes after that."

The states, it is worth noting, have levelled precisely the same accusation against the Microsoft-Department of Justice settlement - although in that case the ambiguities clearly work in Microsoft's favour.

Anti-trust expert Bob Lande said that Mr Gates' performance was impressive.

The states were able to chip away slightly at Mr Gates' credibility and again show that his written testimony can tilt towards exaggeration, but Mr Lande said, "His demeanour is almost more than the substance."

Mr Gates' is the public face of the company, and there is a sense that as the co-founder his attitude towards anti-trust compliance will guide the company.

If he comes off as dishonest and unrepentant, Judge Kollar-Kotelly may think the stiffer penalties proposed by the non-settling states are necessary to fence in Microsoft, Mr Lande said.

If he comes off as a man of good faith, the judge may not think such stiffer penalties are necessary, Mr Lande said.

And in terms of presentation, "Mr Gates is doing very well," he said.