States: Microsoft Uses Windows To Take Advantage Of Rival Software Developers

States' lawyer John Schmidtlein said Microsoft allows competitors to add new features to music and movie players only after Microsoft incorporates the features in its own Windows Media Player.

"Microsoft decides which functionality it deems appropriate?" Schmidtlein asked Microsoft executive Linda Averett.

"That's correct," Averett replied. Averett added that it is in the company's interest to add new features to Windows to make it an attractive operating system for software developers.

The tactic, decried by Microsoft competitors like RealNetworks, ensures that Microsoft's player, which is melded into Windows, always has the latest features before rival products.

Averett said other developers could add the newest features before Microsoft makes them readily available, but the outside developer would have to work harder to do it.

Averett brushed aside allegations from rival RealNetworks that Microsoft uses Windows to gain an unfair advantage in music player programs.

In earlier testimony in the antitrust hearings involving Microsoft, RealNetworks vice president David Richards said Microsoft's latest Windows XP operating system favors Microsoft's media player over RealNetworks products, sometimes over customer objections.

Averett said some of the issues were due to bugs in Windows XP, but others were conscious design decisions by Microsoft aimed at making the program easier for consumers to use.

Due to prerelease versions of Windows XP sent to software developers and testers, Averett said RealNetworks knew about the perceived problems "and was free to modify its products to make them compatible with Windows XP."

Nine states have asked a court to force Microsoft to release a modular version of its Windows operating system in which some features, such as the Web browser and media player, could be removed and replaced with competitors' products.

The federal government and nine other states settled their antitrust case against Microsoft last year for lesser penalties.

The original judge in the antitrust case, Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered Microsoft broken into two companies after concluding that it illegally stifled competitors. An appeals court upheld many of the violations but reversed the breakup order and appointed U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to determine a new punishment.

Microsoft and the states sparred over whether the states could bring two rebuttal witnesses, perhaps as early as next week, to back up claims that Microsoft is able to create the modular Windows.

The states said James Bach, an independent software tester in Front Royal, Va., plans to show that Microsoft's XP Embedded operating system can be used to make that version.

XP Embedded is a version of the full Windows XP operating system that is designed for small, limited function devices like automatic teller machines or cash registers. Lawyers for the states have mentioned XP Embedded during portions of their case, but they said Bach--who once designed a testing regime for Microsoft--recently got access to XP Embedded itself.

The states also want their main computer expert, Andrew Appel of Princeton University, to talk about XP Embedded and other issues.

Microsoft objected, saying that the states should have been able to cover the issue during their case. Microsoft lawyer John Warden said the company may not have enough time to refute Bach's testimony.

Kollar-Kotelly was visibly frustrated at the extension of time requested by the states to make their case, but said she wants to see exactly what Bach plans to say before she makes a ruling about whether he can testify.

States that rejected the government's settlement with Microsoft last fall and are pressing for tougher penalties are Iowa, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Kansas, Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia.

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