DoJ skewers MS exec over falsified video

Allchin admits in court that his evidence was tampered with, and is now therefore FDISKed

Microsoft's defence took a potentially fatal hit today in court, as the DoJ demonstrated that a video demonstration had been 'massaged,' and forced Microsoft senior VP Jim Allchin to concede "they filmed the wrong system." Basically, Allchin is in big trouble, and his evidence is toast. The video had been played by Microsoft's defence on Monday. It ostensibly showed how modifications made to Windows 98 by Edward Felten's IE uninstall program caused severe performance degradation. But the video has given prosecution lawyer David Boies a courtroom scene he can dine out on for the rest of his life. Boies went through the video, freeze-framed it and showed that a title bar had suddenly changed in the middle of the 'demonstration.' It had been edited, and the edit had clearly used two versions of Windows, one of which had not been subject to Felten's modifications. Boies hereby wins our newly-created Register Perry Mason of the Year Award, and should reward his unsung researcher handsomely. There is no question that someone, somehow, had cooked the video at Microsoft. A flabbergasted Allchin said: "I believe from what I've seen here is, they filmed the wrong system." Microsoft obviously wouldn't do that to deliberately mislead the judge, would it? "In this particular case, I do not think the program has been run," said Allchin. "Obviously there were mistakes done there." Allchin still insists that Felten's program severely impacts the performance of Windows 98, but it's now highly unlikely that many people are going to pay attention to him. As a jubilant Boies pointed out, he'd come into court and set forth his case on the basis of evidence that has now been demonstrated to have been tampered with. He can say they made a mistake, and that he's right anyway, but will anybody believe him? Somebody in the Microsoft back rooms just made a big hole in the defence case, well bellow the waterline. ® Complete Register trial coverage