The federal judge hearing the Microsoft antitrust case said Friday she will not consider an internal Microsoft e-mail that advocated retaliation against "unfriendly" computer makers.
This is the second time nine states suing Microsoft have tried to use the memo. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly earlier had refused to let the states use the memo in questioning Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
The states asked the judge last month to include the memo as part of the record as she decides whether Microsoft should face harsh antitrust sanctions. But in an order released Friday, Kollar-Kotelly said the states did not give her enough reason to consider the memo and including it now would cause prejudice to Microsoft.
In the August 2000 e-mail, Microsoft vice president Joachim Kempin complained that chipmaker Intel Corp. was contacting computer makers "who are not (Microsoft) friendly in the first place and ... encouraging them to go to Linux," a free operating system that competes with Microsoft's Windows.
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