Oracle is not the only one balking at the prospect of handing over internal documents to Microsoft in its antitrust case. Now, Harvard University and MIT are countering demands by the software giant, as two professors are asked to hand over research material gathered for a book about Netscape Communications.
The two professors charge that to hand over confidential tapes and notes gathered during research of the book, not only threatens their First Amendment rights but seriously impinges on their ability to conduct valid research and maintain client trust on future projects.
According to a report in Monday's Wall Street Journal, Microsoft released evidence it plans to use in the upcoming antitrust case to counter government charges that it tried to carve up the browser market in a 1995 meeting with Netscape. Microsoft charges instead that Netscape was responsible for its own undoing in the browser wars.
Both universities filed their objections in federal court in Boston on behalf of the two authors of the book, David Yoffie, of Harvard Business School, and Michael Cusumano, of MIT's Sloan School of Business, the report said. The book is due for release in October.
Hand It Over: Part 2
District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson is expected to rule late Tuesday on whether or not Oracle must hand over its own share of internal documents in Microsoft's antitrust case against the Department of Justice. The database company was subpoenaed by Microsoft on September 4.
The documents allegedly prove there was an alliance of high-tech firms plotting against Microsoft -- a claim not unlike the ones being brought against Microsoft for its alleged strong-arm tactics. Jackson has said that the documents could be pertinent to the case. His ruling on Tuesday is expected to decide how extensive the document release by Oracle will be.
