Microsoft en AOL zijn inmiddels al enige weken gewikkeld in een heftige battle rond de AOL Instant Messenger. Microsoft wil zijn eigen Messenger compatible maken met die van AOL, maar AOL is daar niet blij mee en gooit daarom telkens de deur dicht. Mercury Center heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid over het heen en weer gemodder van beide partijen:
Microsoft Corp. acknowledged Thursday that one of its programmers apparently masqueraded as an independent computer consultant earlier this week in an effort to discredit America Online's tactics in the companies' quarrel over instant messaging.Microsoft had reason to be red-faced about the incident -- first, because the company was unable to identify which employee had forged an e-mail message on Tuesday accusing America Online of irresponsible behavior and second, because whoever did it sent the message to the one computer security expert who was most likely to find a way to trace it back to Microsoft.
The ruse has added a bit of Spy vs. Spy melodrama to a bitter dispute over instant online messaging that American Online and Microsoft -- the world's two largest Internet service providers -- have been waging for several weeks. The dispute began last month when Microsoft introduced a clone of the AOL Instant Messenger program, which permits computer users to chat over the Internet with other computer users.
Since Microsoft released its clone, the two companies have waged a public war of words while simultaneously carrying on a hacking cyberwar as America Online has attempted to electronically lock Microsoft Messenger users out of its network and Microsoft has at least 13 times managed to find new back doors.
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