The contents of private mailing lists for employees of Netscape Communications has been subpoenaed by Microsoft apparently in an attempt to bolster its defense in the government's antitrust case.

"We received the subpoena by Microsoft and we are reviewing it and responding appropriately," Netscape (NSCP) spokeswoman Chris Holten said Monday.

For its part, Microsoft (MSFT) wouldn't comment on specific subpoenas or requests for information, but spokesman Mark Murray provided a little context.

"We've always said consumers were choosing our browser technology because it was superior to Netscape's," Murray said. "It would be ironic, to say the least, if Netscape's own internal documents and email expressed concern about Microsoft having a superior product or product strategy."

Microsoft is expected to try to use the contents of the so-called Bad Attitude newsgroup and its offshoot, the Really Bad Attitude private mailing list, to show how the browser maker’s declining market share is rooted in its own poor management and products, rather than unfair competition from Redmond.

The Bad Attitude list has been around since Netscape’s inception (back when it was called Mosaic Communications) and is a sanctioned outlet for employee venting about everything from the cafeteria food or life in a cubicle to what employees think sucks about certain products or managers.

The list essentially migrated with a couple of Netscape’s early hires from Silicon Graphics (SGI), where an internal newsgroup for employee ranting was a longstanding staple of the graphics-workstation maker’s culture.

"It was a place to get things off your chest in as inappropriate and vitriolic a way as you felt like," Netscape engineer Jamie Zawinksi says on his Web site. "It was for catharsis and telling the truth without fear of reprisals." As the company grew and the culture changed to one of more political correctness, Zawinski was annoyed by the watering down of the newsgroup and started up an invitation-only mailing list for his most vituperative colleagues. He called it Really Bad Attitude.

Now Microsoft has subpoenaed the contents of both forums. The company is collecting all the evidence it can as it heads to court next month to defend itself against US Justice Department charges that it has violated antitrust laws.

In a lawsuit filed 18 May, the Justice Department and attorneys general from 20 states charged Microsoft with engaging in anti-competitive practices by forcing computer manufacturers to bundle its Internet Explorer browser with its market-dominating Windows operating system, while excluding Netscape's competing product.