BY TED BRIDIS
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The government's most important witness in its antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. testified Thursday that Microsoft suggested "a line be drawn" to illegally divide the market between its Internet software and the witness' own rival products.
The charge by James Barksdale, head of Netscape Communications Corp., a leading Internet software company, is central to the antitrust case against Microsoft, manufacturer of the dominant Windows operating systems and the world's most powerful software company.
The government said Thursday it plans to show in court on Tuesday videotape of some of its pretrial interviews with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who is not a witness in the case. The move means the videotape becomes evidence available to television stations as soon as it is played in court.
Mr. Barksdale, chief executive officer of Netscape, on Thursday described
Microsoft's alleged proposal at a June 21, 1995, meeting among executives.
"It irritated me. They brought up this line," Mr. Barksdale said on his third day of cross-examination. "The line implied dividing the market between their product and our product, and it bothered me."
Mr. Barksdale, in an angry tone, said he asked Microsoft executives at the meeting: "Where is the line going to end, and what keeps the line from moving? We had a discussion, "Well, it has to be decided on.' . . . They were going to take the browser and make it free with the operating system, and Netscape, we were foolish to even consider doing that."
Mr. Barksdale said he told Microsoft: "Here we are a little company, and you're a big company, and you'll just keep moving the line."
Mr. Gates has called the market-division claims "an outrageous lie."
Microsoft contends that it bundled its Internet software within Windows for technical reasons, blurring the line between the operating system and the browser, which lets people view information on the Internet.
"Is this anything more than just a difference of opinion going on between you and Microsoft about where the line is?" Microsoft lawyer John Warden asked.
Mr. Barksdale replied that he thought Microsoft "stepped across the line."
The Justice Department and 20 states contend Microsoft abused its industry influence as the maker of Windows to "crush" Netscape, after it rejected the alleged offer to divide the market.
They claim Microsoft's strategies to overtake Netscape -- such as including Microsoft's browser within Windows, giving it away free and encouraging Internet providers and computer makers to distribute its software rather than Netscape's -- violated the nation's antitrust laws.
Microsoft earlier laid the groundwork for challenging Mr. Barksdale about the controversial June 21 meeting. The company has said previously that Netscape either "concocted" the story, or else it was a "fantasy (that) arose from the naivete" of Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, whose notes from the meeting are important government evidence.
"The only fair conclusion that can be reached is that Marc Andreessen invented or imagined a proposal to divide markets, and that you and your company have signed on to this invention or imaginary concoction in order to assist the Justice Department in the prosecution of this lawsuit," Mr. Warden said.
Mr. Barksdale snapped back: "I was a witness to it, and you weren't."
