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attlligh-tech disaster during antitrust trial
' m s nised by simple mistake, Microsoft says
I 5J(ppt'«ARHINCTON (AP) — Mi-
istitutiom ;°5S s f d Wednesday a simple
, , takr caused a high-tech video
GATES
lonstration to go awry at its an-
istltrial in a
lemocrats rtroom fiasco.
aucoii in ^ senior vice
.>d article jid^nt, Janies
yrd of Wes ;h i|, testified
rgued forceti t^e demon-
caucus di tion Monday
ealcd tainted
must ansaule unrelat-
3yrd wrote: ;oftware from
nt is guilt, inline service
misdemeam; removed from the company’s
r he shot: compnter, causing a subtle
i office. nge * n how the title of one pro-
his burden n looked.
f senators fc Jut ‘bin insisted that the
to convict ra " 1 iesu lts were valid,
it having to wing™ government efforts to
for rente W Microsoft’s Windows 98
would, in e w f^ h ^ n c h a , used dra j T ‘ntic per-
t he nan ce Problems and disabled
ie functions.
nenTs^to had believed that its
tal demonstration would be an
ctive rebuttal of the
be aggressn
govern-
using rival software.
But in one of the trial’s most
sensational moments, Justice De
partment lawyer David Boies
stopped the video in midframe
Tiiesday to reveal an inconsistency
barely perceptible among the pix
els: the border showing the brows
er’s name was different in one part
of the video than in another.
Boies charged — and Allchin
agreed — that the subtle change in
the border, called the title bar, in
dicated that Microsoft’s test actual
ly used a version of Windows un
affected by the government’s
modifications.
But Wednesday, Allchin said the
change resulted in the removal of
online software from Prodigy Com
munications Corp., which affected
only the disputed title bar by delet
ing a system setting, called a reg
istry key.
“When Prodigy is uninstalled, it
changes the key,” Allchin told the
judge. “It actually deletes it.”
Allchin said Microsoft flew the af
fected computer and some of its en
gineering team from its West Coast
headquarters to Washington aboard
a commercial jet late Tbesday.
“David (Boies) got a big bang
on a very trivial issue,” Microsoft
lawyer Michael Lacovara said.
Boies, who didn’t mention the
video in court Wednesday, said
previously that there was no evi
dence the demonstration was de
liberately altered.
“Whether it was deliberate or a
result of incompetence, the video
evolutionary drug can treat
— if patients can afford it
point, \
etter let nn, ^ e
it’s 1 Inims that its Internet
e § y ’k 6 53 w|r s ° ftw ?re could be easily
to otter ar. iovt d from Windows 98.
^•n j the mnpany video shows its
,vill do that ws ef running dramatically
luit <1 ; ^0^ jttti tno government tri6d
ould pass. ti sa l lle m ost Internet functions
Democrat yipi toWS -
Iowa, sufprhc issue is key because the
t could bep:erii |n ^ nt . that Mi-
nate to deejofi’ 5 ^ orces consumers
?en guilty oito W 1 ' Windows also to use its
ict. wST’ dlsc ° ura ging-them from
x Baucus, tf i5 "'
ter objection
motive here,
idings of fac
ard ... it will
t cr another:
subsequent c
eleaie of t: iVA^ 1 lAP) — Dr. Scott Baumgartner has
apes could >d f ° r his - elderl y Patients with
I of p.blicu^t'^ ™ 1 ^evolutionary new drug can
56, si me the At ^ H c ^' e woA’tnl f° StS UP t0 $1 ’ 00 ° 3 m ° nth
,, ,1,^ .^,,^1 ' won t pay for it — or any prescription
‘Tt’p a ^bame to have to say, ‘Well, here’s this med-
they ve all read about it, they know it might
■ ,, n , ) tb em ~. but you can’t do it,’” Baumgartner said.
V i ' iod ie P atients 111 bis Spokane, Wash., practice are
whether th e drug, Enbrel, for a few weeks at a time as
ild be pe-mittejB^n afford it. Others simply stay with inferior
the tape; dun fjgnts.
intents, le>ji Mjjcare, the government health insurance pro-
t if you tegoit-pfor 39 million elderly and disabled Americans,
m, you b-ttet ne ver paid for prescriptions.
?•” jj-gkident Clinton as well as many Republicans
jld bke to change that. But the costs could be
ntjng f° r a program already facing a shaky finan-
fuiure.
> dru g s are am °ng the greatest medical ad-
ce f in recent years, reducing heart attacks and can-
• geath 8 and even slowing the progress of AIDS. As
1C sillt. the lack of prescription coverage is becoming
| Her problem.
• i 1 Tf elderly Americans are not getting the medicines
nne tlfy need, it’s costing the nation a lot of dollars for in-
C ased medical care,” said Dr. Raymond Woosley,
• -I oiieads the pharmacology department at George-
igl r n University Medical Center.
Hjibrel is an extreme example. But the costs of old-
GTON (A 5 ) Irugs also can add up: one common blood thinner
ublic is wcmofjd to avoid blood clots in heart and stroke patients
iment procissata $60 a month and a common heart drug $180.
:al of the Sffiit- er ^ mer * cans ta k e five or six prescription drugs on
President CiiP ra 8 e - , . ,, ,
II released Vfei£iP ton b as sai d be wants to add drug coverage to
’re mostly hr d i care — assuming he and lawmakers can find a
iccordine to V t0 ensure fb e program can provide the benefits it
York Times B - ady P romises -
lit- I The president has suggested using some of the ex-
Is time forRt'i ’' ted f edera ' budget surplus for Medicare. Even so,
^ . In ,' 1 /’ ■ e ' dicare is expected to run short of cash as the huge
leir^egislitiV )y boom generation retires, entering the program in
md unease wt
e continungi:™" :———:—:
will hurt the ^ In Collms 97,nv,tes P ot/ to -
i the 2000elect. SMITH FIREARMS/
conservativeS/ICKSON CREEK GUN RANGE
ed said thtwa) 409-589-1093
Republicans lii 1:
latter woild f
epublican (an# |<
fie & Pistol Range Skeet Practice
ELECTRIC SKEET MACHINE
pci^ir;9R
was wrong,” Boies said.
Three computer experts — two
young men in their early 20s and
their former college professor —
found the discrepancy for the gov
ernment the weekend Microsoft
made a copy available.
The experts — Edward Felten of
Princeton University and his for
mer students — noticed the prob
lem almost immediately, even
though Microsoft’s computer talent
and its high-priced lawyers missed
it.
The Justice Department invited
Felten and his two young col
leagues Wednesday to sit in the
courtroom’s front row.
Even with Microsoft’s explana
tion, the debacle caused the com
pany serious problems in how its
legal fight is perceived.
The Wall Street Journal wrote
that the trial defense is “reeling from
a series of courtroom setbacks.”
And Rich Gray, a California an
titrust lawyer analyzing the case
daily for the San Jose Mercury
News, wrote: “The last time the
United States government inflicted
this much punishment on a foe, the
evening news was filled with aeri
al photography of bombed-out ve
hicles and burning Iraqi tanks on
the highway leading out of Kuwait
City.’ ’
Gray acknowledged he was tak
ing “poetic license,” but said:
“When you bring in a piece of ev
idence into a federal courtroom,
that evidence most definitely
should be what you say it is.”
waves around 2010.
That has members of a commission advising the
president and Congress on Medicare searching for op
tions.
“People would like to have a drug program if we
can find a way to pay for it,” said Sen. John Breaux,
D-La.
The government estimates about two-thirds of se
nior citizens have some drug coverage. Most get it
through retiree health benefits offered by former em
ployers, or through supplemental policies known as
Medigap that they buy on their own.
Others get coverage through the small number of
Medicare HMOs, or through Medicaid public assis
tance for the poor.
But the percentage of large companies offering
health benefits to their retirees has dropped by 20 per
cent in the 1990s. A recent Consumer Reports study
found Medigap prices have gone up as much as a
third.
Meanwhile, HMOs squeezed by Medicare’s cost
cutting are curbing drug reimbursements offered as
perks to attract the elderly, or limiting them to cheap
er generic or older brand-name drugs.
The result: The newest drugs, expensive because
they’re developed at tremendous cost to companies
trying to return profits to investors, are out of reach
for many.
Nevertheless, there is mounting evidence that
Medicare will actually lose money in the long run if
the elderly cannot get the best medicine.
One recent study, for example, attributed a rash of
broken hips to retirees taking older antidepressants,
which are cheaper but can cause a drop in blood pres
sure and thus dizziness, Woosley said. Newer but
more expensive antidepressants don’t affect blood
pressure as much.
“A prescription drug costs an awful lot less than a
hospitalization,” Woosley said.
But the upfront expense of paying drug costs for the
elderly is daunting. One government estimate found
that adding even a modest benefit — having Medicare
pay, for example, 75 percent of their drug bills —
would cost at least $20 billion a year.
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