Microsoft Depositions Closed to Public

An appeals court Wednesday barred the public from attending pretrial testimony by Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates and other executives of the software giant in preparation for a landmark antitrust trial.

“We’re gratified by today’s decision and will continue to move ahead with preparations for trial, including depositions of Microsoft executives and third parties,” Microsoft spokesman Greg Shaw said.

The appeals court decision allows the depositions to resume immediately, overturning a lower court ruling that the interviews cease while the parties and media organizations work out access procedures under a 1913 federal law.

The depositions must be completed before the start of a major antitrust case against Microsoft brought by the Justice Department and 20 states.

The case is set to begin Sept. 8, but both sides asked for a two-week delay and a judge will consider matters at a hearing today.

Several news organizations had asked the lower court to admit them under the Publicity in Taking of Evidence Act, which requires public access to depositions in government antitrust cases.

An attorney for Reuters said that the news organizations were “reviewing the decision and considering [our] options.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman said: “The court order is clear. We’ll proceed in accordance with it.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit did not decide who was right but refused to delay the depositions, holding that Microsoft was more likely to be harmed than news organizations.

Meanwhile, Microsoft faced a new antitrust challenge--from a small software developer.

Bristol Technology of Danbury, Conn., filed an antitrust lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., alleging that Microsoft illegally and “callously” cut it off from the computer code it needs to make its products.

“We believe we have a terrific case,” Keith Blackwell, president of the privately held company, said in an interview soon after the lawsuit was announced Wednesday.

But Microsoft said it has simply been unable to reach agreement with Bristol to provide the code.

“The complaint appears to be fully without merit,” said Shaw, the Microsoft spokesman.

Bristol makes “emulation” software that enables programs designed to run on Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system also work on Unix, an older operating system that dominates the market for servers.