Microsoft denies government requests

In a court filing Tuesday, Microsoft Corporation said that CEO Bill Gateswas "too busy" to attend two days of questioning by the U.S. Department ofJustice (DOJ), while reminding the court that numerous Microsoft executiveshave already voluntarily submitted themselves for questioning.

"There is no point in wasting Mr. Gates' time with questions that have already been answered by persons more directly involved in the developmentof Windows 98 and the promotion and distribution of Internet Explorer technologies," the court filing reads. Microsoft also

The company also argued that it shouldn't have to turn over any of the codefor Windows 98, as the government is requesting.

"Microsoft must insist on such a source code license agreement as a matterof basic copyright and trade secret law, in order to protect its valuable intellectual property. The source code for Microsoft's operating systemsoftware products contains numerous comments that disclose not only the methodology employed by Microsoft in developing those products, but also features and functions that may be included in subsequent releases. The source code to Windows 98 is among Microsoft's most valuable and closely guarded assets. That source code, for a currently shipping product responsible for generating billions of dollars of revenue for Microsoft,should not be treated cavalierly."

If you're interested in reading the entire transcript, it is availableonline at the Microsoft PressPass Web site