[Am-info] Microsoft suspected of lying !!

[Gene Gaines]

(My two cents.  Maybe Google could advise Microsoft on providing
storage to archive employee emails by using Linux. -Gene)


Microsoft told to explain e-mail deletion memos
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/174343_msftburst21.html

Friday, May 21, 2004
By JAMES ROWLEY
BLOOMBERG NEWS


A federal judge ordered Microsoft Corp. yesterday to search a company 
computer to help explain why Vice President James Allchin told 
employees in 2000 to eliminate e-mails.

U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz in Baltimore issued the order in 
an antitrust and patent suit by Burst.com Inc., which has accused 
Microsoft of stealing its technology for broadcasting sound and video 
over the Internet at high speeds. Burst.com charges that Microsoft 
destroyed e-mails that may help the smaller rival win its case.

Motz told the company to search a legal department computer for any 
evidence that Microsoft lawyers advised Allchin and others to adopt a 
policy of scrapping e-mails. A written policy circulated in 1997 by 
company computer operators advised employees not to save e-mails for 
more than 30 days "due to legal issues."

"I want to know as much as I can how 'due to legal issues' got in 
there," Motz told Microsoft lawyer John Treece at a hearing yesterday. 
"I want to know who talked to Mr. Allchin from the legal department 
before the e-mail was sent and what was said."

Motz didn't accept Microsoft's explanation that the information 
technology department inserted the words in the company policy 
statement to make it easier to persuade employees to delete e-mails 
after 30 days to save computer memory space. "It may be true, but it 
doesn't have the ring of truth to me," the judge said. Allchin's Jan. 
23, 2000, e-mail said: "do not archive your mail. 30 days." Allchin 
told employees, "This is not something that you get to decide. This is 

-------------------------------------


Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com
Sterling, Virginia