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The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 05:45 PM EST

First, the good news: Remember how hard we looked for the video of Microsoft CEO Bill Gates' 1998 deposition testimony in the Justice Department's litigation against Microsoft? It seemed to have completely disappeared from the Internet as far as we could determine. There are text transcripts available, but not the complete video.

It's back.

There is a redesigned Comes v. Microsoft website, and a big change is that video testimony and exhibits will also now be made available, beginning with the Gates video. It's in the public record now, so it can never disappear again.

Now for the bad news: the video is only in Windows Media format (wmv). Sigh.

Update: When the case was settled, the iowaconsumercase.com website was taken down. Consequently we placed our copy of all the videos here.


  


The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack! | 311 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Corrections - Item in Subject line Please
Authored by: tce on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 05:50 PM EST
.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off Topic - EOOXML
Authored by: tce on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 05:52 PM EST
Links are always good.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off Topic - General Interest to Groklaw
Authored by: tce on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 05:53 PM EST
.

[ Reply to This | # ]

The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
Authored by: Evita_Ercnu on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 05:58 PM EST
Isn't there a tool to convert between video formats? Or would that infringe
upon too many patents?

IANAN - I am not a newbie - but I play one on IP

Evita

[ Reply to This | # ]

The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
Authored by: oo on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 06:09 PM EST

The commenter deleted his comment

[ Reply to This | # ]

Hillarious
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 06:57 PM EST
It's so bad it's funny. Hardly the switch-on inspiring leader of the biggest
software company in the world.

He's a terrible liar too. I wonder if there's anything he's said that isn't a
lie (i'm not sure how much of this I can stand however).

Oddly enough, the office's MS evangaliser just sees the lawyers as asking silly
questions that make no sense e.g. 'he's using a consumer dictionary, how silly
is that'. Sigh.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Actually, PJ
Authored by: inode_buddha on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 07:05 PM EST
Actually, PJ, it's not that hard to convert to other media formats such as mpeg.
Maybe I'll play around with that a bit later, say as tonight's cron job.

---
-inode_buddha
Copyright info in bio

"When we speak of free software,
we are referring to freedom, not price"
-- Richard M. Stallman

[ Reply to This | # ]

msdos confirmed by Bill as OS
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 07:18 PM EST
Didn't this come up before where dos was refered to as
integral to windows?, now Bill confirms in first clip that
msdos was a standalone product.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Dear DoJ...
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 07:41 PM EST
Bill Gates' video testimony is public record.
It only exists in Microsoft's proprietary format.
How it something so obviously idiotic even possible???

[ Reply to This | # ]

First Video - Is Microsoft the Most Respected Software Company?
Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 08:18 PM EST
In the first video, Bill Gates is asked if he believes that Microsoft is the most respected software company (which is how the "Microsoft Computer Dictionary" describes the company). He waffles around the question instead of giving a straight forward "yes" or "no" answer and has to be questioned repeatedly on this point. I guess he is under no illusions as to what people think about him and his company.

P.S. I had no problems looking at the first video with Mandriva 2007 x86-64. Firefox launched Totem player to view the video. I only watched a bit, because I'm not really that interested in what he has to say.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Your Future Beyond SCO - Micro$oft Partner Program event
Authored by: SirHumphrey on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 08:56 PM EST
"February 8-9, 2007

http://www.msreadiness.com/IL_abstract.asp?eid=5014800

Target Audience:

Business Decision Makers from SCO-based solution providers in the US.

SCO solution providers can ........ transition from SCO UNIX to Windows Server

What Microsoft and DTR will do to help you make the move from SCO UNIX to Microsoft.

Current review of SCO in the marketplace

Comparing options and impact on your customers

Migrating to the Windows platform

Small Business Server Deep Dive and benefits of Microsoft Small Business Server" (it doesn't say if MIT will be in attendance)

And finally.........................

"Day 2 ends with an optional shuttle to the Microsoft Company Store."

Sounds like the Vista launch confirms M$ has no further need for SCO.

[ Reply to This | # ]

    The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
    Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 09:09 PM EST
    On Bill Gates clip 1,
    There is something about old sco (he does not call it that)
    It is found at time index 9:48 or about 31:24 sec from the end
    of the clip. (It really is not much he just says the name).

    He know about Santa Cruz Operation as a 'compeating os'.


    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Deposition Strategy
    Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 09:58 PM EST
    It is interesting to see the question and response patterns in the deposition.
    You can tell when the questions are significant because Gates will stall or try
    to avoid answering the questions. I think this shows that stalling in a
    deposition is not a good strategy. What you are not prepared to answer can be as
    revealing as anything you actually say.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Well!
    Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 10:14 PM EST
    This article shows just how long it takes to pick apart a proprietary formatted
    video. DRM - no chance!

    Tufty

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
    Authored by: LinuxLobbyist on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 11:05 PM EST
    I'm a little surprised at how many people are talking about converting this to
    mpeg or avi. Please, please, please, folks, if someone is going to convert it,
    convert it to the only format with no known patent infringing components or that
    requires non-free, binary only codecs to play (i.e.: not much better than wmv).
    Use ogg theora. I'm attempting to grab them now and will convert them to ogg
    theora if I can. I'll make them available via bittorrent unless someone can
    offer web or ftp space.

    ---
    Local Linux Lobbyist
    Ever see a penguin fly? -- Try Linux.
    GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
    Authored by: fava on Thursday, February 01 2007 @ 11:13 PM EST
    At 47:00 of the 12th video we have the infamous exchange where Billg insisted
    that he did not type something but rather the computer did.

    Priceless.

    fava

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 02:21 AM EST
    "Now for the bad news: the video is only in Windows Media format (wmv).
    Sigh."

    Now imagine a nice, juicy DRM self-destruct button, in a world were ALL devices
    are DRM enabled.

    Evidence: *poof*

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    There's mencoder ;-) (n/t)
    Authored by: jplatt39 on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 03:32 AM EST
    :-0

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Off Topic - Oil companies and record profits.
    Authored by: Starlite528 on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 06:31 AM EST
    Record profits? Really? I would have never guessed....NOT!

    I read one report that says Exxon made 4.5mil an hour,
    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003552427_exxon02.html


    I'm mad because there is no end in sight. I'm mad because I don't believe there
    is any real reason for the price of gas to be so high. Do the oil company execs
    have to pay for the gas that they use, assuming they drive themselves?

    All I can do and what I do hope for, is that I see the worlds oil reserves
    literally run out before I die. I hope they run out before it's too late to
    save our environment.

    ---
    "Death continues to be our nations number one killer."
    Henry Gibson

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    One last laugh before bed
    Authored by: Starlite528 on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 08:01 AM EST
    Linux Genuine Advantage
    "Linux Genuine Advantageā„¢ is an exciting and mandatory new way for you to
    place your computer under the remote control of an untrusted third party!"

    http://www.linuxgenuineadvantage.org

    Okay I'm going to bed for real this time!

    ---
    "Death continues to be our nations number one killer."
    Henry Gibson

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
    Authored by: Stumbles on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 08:02 AM EST
    I've not watched it yet but is this the video they were caught tampering
    with? Or am I thinking of some other they were caught faking.

    ---
    You can tuna piano but you can't tune a fish.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    VLC can also export it to a file...
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 09:28 AM EST
    VLC can also export the stream to any format it supports, like mpeg4...

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Re-post it!
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 10:04 AM EST
    I don't have the bandwidth, but I hope for each case of these rediscovered
    "disappearances" of video or audio, someone saves them and then
    uploads to torrents and/or youtube. Although youtube has been known for yanking
    videos, hopefully once content is released, it can never be squashed again.

    Likewise with old websites, press releases, manuals, etc. Never know when
    they'll come in handy ;-)

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    And the transcripts are juicy!
    Authored by: tz on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 10:17 AM EST
    the January 25th, around 10592 (a bit before) has a novell exec saying
    "unbelievable, unbelievable" after reading Allicin saying that they
    should insure DRDOS would have problems with Windows. Above is a confirmation
    of their FUD campaign where they would find bugs and dribble out notices to the
    media so as to instill fear of DRDOS. And how Sears moved to MSDOS after they
    couldn't get Novell to agree to huge penalties if they weren't compatible with
    Windows after contact with Microsoft.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 11:02 AM EST
    mplayer plays these wmv files. The most likely problem is that xine can not
    handle the mms protocol used by the web site. If you are using gnome, the
    player preference can be changed to mplayer by typing

    gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/mms/command
    "/usr/bin/mplayer %s"


    You must be logged in as root to change your peference.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Ogg Vorbis of v1/12 posted
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 02:59 PM EST
    For what it's worth, I made an Ogg file for the first of the 12 WMV streams. The length is 53 min 21 sec, the Ogg file is 25 MB. The file includes informational comment tags.

    GATES-1998 page

    Above link is my own page. If someone else wants to host it elsewhere, that might be better. YouTube re-encodes everything to Flash, so I can't put the Ogg file there. The original audio seems to have been over-processed for loudness, so it sounds distorted. If you look at it in an editor you can see many clipped or nearly clipped peaks. The WMV video looks to be a VHS transfer, based on the head-switching noise visible in the bottom few scanlines.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Ogg Vorbis of v1/12 posted (fixed link)
    Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 03:00 PM EST
    For what it's worth, I made an Ogg file for the first of the 12 WMV streams. The length is 53 min 21 sec, the Ogg file is 25 MB. The file includes informational comment tags.

    GATES-1998 page

    Above link is my own page. If someone else wants to host it elsewhere, that might be better. YouTube re-encodes everything to Flash, so I can't put the Ogg file there. The original audio seems to have been over-processed for loudness, so it sounds distorted. If you look at it in an editor you can see many clipped or nearly clipped peaks. The WMV video looks to be a VHS transfer, based on the head-switching noise visible in the bottom few scanlines.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    The 1998 Bill Gates Deposition Video -- It's Baaack!
    Authored by: LinuxLobbyist on Friday, February 02 2007 @ 09:11 PM EST
    Hmm, you mean it's already done? I'm just about finished downloading and
    conversion is going to take a while, but if someone else has already done this,
    then cool.

    ---
    Local Linux Lobbyist
    Ever see a penguin fly? -- Try Linux.
    GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    What happened?
    Authored by: rexbinary on Saturday, February 03 2007 @ 12:28 AM EST
    What happened in the original antitrust trial? Why is Microsft still doing
    business the same was they always have? Why is IE still intergrated into
    Windows? I'd love to see a retro piece on it from Groklaw.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    • What happened? - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, February 04 2007 @ 02:39 PM EST
    Tin Men Redux
    Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, February 03 2007 @ 10:56 PM EST
    I am half way through watching the Gates video deposition. Fascinating. I have
    never seen a more thorough and professional prevaricator as Bill.

    I recently re-watched the Danny Devito movie "Tin Men", about aluminum
    siding salesmen. Great movie, I think Gates must have been trained as one in a
    prior life.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Oh the IRONY!
    Authored by: Nick Bridge on Sunday, February 04 2007 @ 11:43 AM EST
    Man isn't that just too ironic?

    [ Reply to This | # ]

    Look at this Novell: Here's how M$ screws up competitors they make pacts with
    Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, February 05 2007 @ 06:20 PM EST
    http://www.iowaconsumercase.org/011107/PX_2768.pdf

    If we, as a company, are
    interested in promoting Windows, why
    bother with AFC?[...]
    Screw Sun,
    cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and
    steal the Java language.
    That
    said, have we ever taken a look at how long it would
    take Microsoft to build a
    cross-platform Java that did work?
    Naturally, we would never do it, but it would
    give us some
    idea of how much time we have to work with in killing Sun's
    Java.

    [ Reply to This | # ]

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