IP: Liars, cheats and incompetents

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 08:14:03 -0800 (PST)
From: Dan Gillmor <dgillmor@sjmercury.com>
To: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: http://www.sjmercury.com/columnists/gillmor/docs/dg102598.htm

Liars, cheats and incompetents don't fill the executive offices at
technology companies. The American public may believe otherwise before
long, in part because of the nature of today's legal system.

In just the first week of the Microsoft antitrust trial in Washington,
government lawyers strongly implied Bill Gates is a perjurer, contrasting
his memory lapses during a deposition with evidence that he was up to his
eyeballs in the events he denied remembering. Then Microsoft offered
evidence of off-the-wall statements by Netscape Communications Corp.'s
co-founder and board chairman, Jim Clark, -- and Jim Barksdale, Netscape's
chief executive, found himself calling Clark a salesman so that he
wouldn't have to call him a liar.