SAN JOSE, California -- What started out as a lighthearted atmosphere quickly turned aggressive Tuesday, in the first of three days of testimony in a suit brought by Sun Microsystems against Microsoft.
In the suit originally filed in October, Sun Microsystems is seeking to prove that Microsoft's changes to the Java programming language violated its contract with Sun.
Sun followed up with a complaint in May about alleged copyright violations on the part of Microsoft, and is asking that Microsoft be legally forced to comply with Sun's Java specifications.
The gloves came off Tuesday as representatives of the former business partners squared off in front of US District Court Judge Ronald Whyte, with a line-up of expert witnesses and often Byzantine technical evidence and data.
"Microsoft has unilaterally 'polluted' the Java language by adding unauthorized, nonstandard keywords and compiler directives," said Alan Baratz, president of Sun's Java division, in a court statement.
"Only Microsoft's products can 'understand' this new language. It's like someone changing the English language by adding new vowels and consonants that change the meaning of the words that use them, and by changing the rules of grammar," Baratz said. "Only the people who know the new alphabet or rules ... would make sense of the new books being written in the new, polluted form of English."
Sun also claims that Microsoft intended to undermine Sun from the very beginning, in order to compete with it for software developers who would then have to choose between technologies from the two companies.
Microsoft countered that the contract allowed for modifications or "extensions" to the Java language, which allows for links to Microsoft's Windows program. Microsoft dismisses Sun's Java Native Interface, which Microsoft claims wasn't part of the original contract and is the main reason why it fails some of Sun's compatibility tests.
Recently, Sun has widened the scope of its suit, asserting that Microsoft used unfair business tactics to stymie competition from Java. Sun's new claim echoes those of the antitrust suit that the US Justice Department is bringing against Microsoft, along with attorneys general from 20 states, which is set to go to trial 23 September.
The Justice Department will try to prove that Microsoft attempted to coerce Intel and Apple Computer to gang up on Sun in undermining its Java technology.
