A U.S. judge has ordered Microsoft Corp. to search for any deleted e-mails that might help Burst.com Inc. win a lawsuit claiming its technique for broadcasting music and video on the Internet was stolen by the Redmond company. Burst shares have jumped almost 75 percent since the judge issued the edict Aug. 28 at a hearing in Baltimore where the software company's lawyer, Spencer Hosie, complained that there were "profound gaps" in the 140 boxes of e-mails that Microsoft turned over in pretrial proceedings. A transcript of the hearing obtained by Bloomberg News showed that U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz ordered Microsoft to search 25,000 backup computer tapes to determine whether they contain deleted e-mails pertinent to Burst's lawsuit.
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