A Microsoft executive on Thursday denied that the company used its Windows operating system monopoly to thwart rival audio and video players, as alleged in its landmark antitrust case.
Will Poole, a vice president in charge of Microsoft"s Windows New Media Platform Division, told federal court that RealNetworks was the dominant media-playing software despite its complaints about Microsoft. "The inclusion of multimedia technology in Windows has not impeded RealNetworks" ability to create competing media players that run very well on Windows and to distribute and promote those media players broadly to users," Poole said in written testimony.
Nine states seeking stiff antitrust sanctions against Microsoft had called a RealNetworks executive to the witness stand in March to bolster arguments that the software giant continues to abuse its Windows monopoly power. RealNetworks Vice President David Richards told U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that Microsoft had withheld technical data from RealNetworks to ensure that its player would not work as well with Windows as the Windows Media Player.