Think being the richest man in the world would make someone relatively free from frustration? Not so, according to an Associated Press article. Bill Gates is reportedly very unhappy with his continual taped appearance on "Redmond Justice," which seems to happen every few days. Bill apparently didn't want to appear live on the show, as his own company didn't call him as a witness, and the government is only too happy to leave him out of it-- especially since the deposition he gave last August contains plenty of videotaped testimony that supports the government's charges. That right there is Bill's complaint-- the government is only showing the stuff that makes him look evasive, confused, or just plain malicious. Of course, Microsoft is perfectly able to show the positive side of Gates with their own excerpts from the deposition, but so far, they've declined. Perhaps there's not much material that they'd really want shown.

Anyway, the upshot is this: the government keeps showing taped footage of Gates' deposition, Microsoft has so far declined to show their own excerpts from the tapes as rebuttal (and can't very well cross-examine a videotape), and so Bill Gates has become his own worst enemy in the biggest trial of his life. What to do? Well, there's still the option of calling Bill as a witness. Yes, each side has already chosen their dozen witnesses and Bill didn't make the cut on either side, but a TechWeb article reveals that each side has the option to call up to two surprise witnesses. Surprise witnesses! The cornerstone of all true courtroom dramas! We may yet get Bill up live in front of those cameras. In fact, lead government lawyer David Boies claims that Bill "is indicating more and more that he'd like to come and testify" and that he's "sure his lawyers will listen to him." Wishful thinking on Boies' part? After all, he was the one who took the original deposition, and it's pretty likely that he thinks he could tear Gates to shreds during cross-examination.

We imagine that Bill's a little camera-shy after the last time he testified in person; remember last March's investigation into competition in the software industry? Senator Orrin Hatch reportedly got kinda nasty. Still, Bill may well feel that testifying in person is the only way to dispel the doubt surrounding his character. If he does order a shift in Microsoft's legal strategy and takes the stand, we hope for the sake of the show that it happens very soon-- Sweeps Month is almost over.