Even chief executive officers want to have fun. The Microsoft antitrust trial heard on Monday that the top officers of Internet browser makers Netscape Communications and America Online liked to think of themselves as World War II allies against Microsoft.

In an October 19th, 1995, email introduced into the court record, Netscape chief executive, Mr Jim Barksdale, addressed his AOL counterpart Steve Case as "Steve (a.k.a Franklin D.)," a reference to wartime President Franklin Roosevelt.

Barksdale signed the email as "your comrade Joseph Stalin," adding in parentheses: "I don't like playing this part. He was not very p.c. (politically correct). From now on I want to be Winston C.," referring to the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

"Did you ever get to be Churchill?" asked Microsoft lawyer John Warden on cross-examination.

"No," replied Barksdale.