Under oath, Sun discloses Web plans.

The second of a series of public depositions in the Microsoft antitrust case turned more private than public yesterday when lawyers for Sun Microsystems insisted that members of the media and public leave the courtroom. The deposition was expected to shed light on the recent merger of Microsoft_s chief rivals, AOL and Netscape Communications. The $10 billion stock deal also included a strategic partnership between AOL and Sun. But less than an hour after the deposition began, the only people left in the room were the man being deposed - M. Popov, vice president and CEO of Sun - and the lawyers, a videographer and a court reporter. When Microsoft lawyer R. Pepperman signaled that he was going to start asking detailed questions about Sun_s alliance with AOL, Sun lawyer J. Young invoked an exemption in the open-deposition order allowing the proceeding to be closed if trade secrets or "highly confidential" information were to be elicited. Depositions in the Microsoft antitrust trial were ordered public after a consortium of media companies, citing an obscure law, successfully sued to open them up. In the latest series of depositions, Microsoft is seeking to question AOL, Netscape and Sun officials about the deal, attempting to demonstrate that the merger proves competition in the computer industry is vibrant, rendering the antitrust case irrelevant. The relatively short public sessions focused on when Popov learned of merger talks between AOL and Netscape. Pepperman_s line of questioning seemed aimed at establishing that seeds of the deal occurred before the government filed its antitrust case against Microsoft in May 1998. After the deposition, Justice Department lawyer P. Malone asserted that nothing said in public or in private does anything to change the overall facts of the case. At least two more public depositions scheduled at Microsoft_s request are expected to take place before the trial resumes.