Microsoft lawyers and deposed Princeton professor Edward Felton spent hours
Wednesday arguing about the definition of "Web browser." Felton was being
deposed in preparation for Microsoft's antitrust trial, which resumes next
week. Felton, you may recall, became infamous late last year when he wrote a
program with a student that purports to remove Internet Explorer from
Windows. Microsoft argues that Felton's program removes only the most
obvious application but leaves "99%" of Internet Explorer on the system.
Today's battle, however, centered on the definition of the word "browser."
Microsoft says that because Internet Explorer is so firmly integrated into
the operating system, it isn't a single application program and thus it
blurs the lines. Felton argued that Internet Explorer, conversely, is an
application program like any other.
"The Internet Explorer browser is the product that consumers use to browse
the web," Felten said.
"What software code comprises the browser?" argued Microsoft lawyer Steve
Holley, alluding to the fact that installing Internet Explorer causes files
to be added all over the system.
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