RealNetworks Sues Microsoft Over Antitrust Issues

jamacdon writes "Yahoo! has an article about RealNetworks Inc. filing an antitrust suit against Microsoft, claiming that MS has violated antitrust laws. This claim appears to revolve around how PC makers are restricted from including competing media players. Very similiar to the Internet Explorer issue, but different content. Will the results be the same?"

Dear Real

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Real:

We still remember when you were selling our personal data. So even if we could get your player preinstalled in our computers, it would be the first to be removed.

Your player is complete bloatware with one of the most misleading installs ever. thanks for the headache you rat bastards.

Blah. Who to root for?

[Talisman]

This is like a steel cage match between bin Laden and Hitler. Who the hell do I root for?

Is there a scenario where both can lose?

Here's to hoping that the courthouse explodes.

Tal

Difficult choice

[autopr0n]

On the one hand, microsoft using it's monopoly is a bad thing.

On the other hand, the sooner real networks dies and takes their horrible, ad-driven software with them, the better.

again?

[skydude_20]

must i be stuck choosing between the lesser-of-two-evils again?

Re:Forget It.

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, cutting off Air Supply is a blessing. Those guys sucked so bad.

Re:It might werk.

[Anonymous Coward]

I also think it is unfair that bonzia buddy does not come pre-installed on my windows computer. How dare Microsoft corner the malware market with anti-compeditive monopolist tactics!

And the outcome of the court case...

[LordP]

Judge: Members of the jury, do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?
Jury: Your honour, we find the defendant ... [buffering]

You know a program sucks when...

[sparks]

...you find yourself siding with Microsoft in an antitrust lawsuit

You know a program REALLY sucks when...

...you find the rest of Slashdot agrees with you!

Actual letter to RealNetworks

[kneecarrot]

Maybe it will cost me some Karma... but this is a gem:

TO: Real Networks
SUBJECT: Fuck You All

I am holding myself back in the most intense way at the moment.

I don't care if this is the wrong address to send this to. Your website is a labyrinth of misdirection in which finding the simple thing you want is nigh-impossible. This, after about 20 clicks, was the first email address I came to. If you, as the person receiving this letter, have a shred of humanity left, you will submit this to the proper people. And now, on to my letter.

Where do you people get off?

My task: download Realplayer in order to view some streaming content. A simple project, one would say. Well, first you have to wade through the aforementioned sea of misdirection, all of it aimed at extracting your visa number to buy the completely useless realplayer plus. I realize you people need to make some money, but save it for the server business - it's bad enough that back in the day, you were inferior to several other streaming technologies, but somehow, like scum in water, you rose to the top. Leave the users who are stuck with your products out of your sick little power games.

All I want is Realplayer Basic, to play realmedia, and ONLY realmedia. I am not interested in realjukebox, realdownloadagent, or realbuttplug. I specified this when I was installing it. I also am not interested in having your inferior product play my mp3s, or any format other than your own. This was also specified when I installed. How difficult a concept is this? Anyone can grasp it. And I won't even get into the god-knows-how-many useless "subscribe to our spam service!" checkboxes I have to uncheck, including five which are HIDDEN AT THE BOTTOM OF A STACK OF UNCHECKED ONES. With each click, the bile rises higher in my throat. If I knew a satanist, I would have him summon demons to terrorize your offices.

So then, I go to launch an mp3 out of Agent, and not only does your software launch even though I SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO DO THAT, but it's not even Realplayer - it's Realjukebox which I also SPECIFICALLY TOLD IT NOT TO INSTALL.

And here's the real point: if you're going to go ahead and do a fascist coup of my system's preferences and resources (getting your filthy little icons out of my system tray gets more difficult with each new version), why bother pretending that you are giving me a choice? Just go ahead and take it, save me the trouble of unchecking all those boxes and saying No 20 times. Just go ahead, play your little game, and let me get on with removing your annoying system resource wastes from my pristine desktop.

In closing, I would just like to say that I view your company as the most evil force operating on the internet today, and while I would end this with "may God have mercy on your souls" for anyone else (including Bill Gates), for you, I only pray that the people behind your software's design are raped by syphilitic camels at some point.

Burn in hell.

Scylla or Charybdis?

[lurker412]

One can only hope that this is a long, expensive legal battle that weakens both parties.

Re:again?

[Dirtside]

Why choose the lesser evil? Cthulhu in 2004!

WMP suits me fine.

[tshak]

Why does real suck? ... I can turn off most of the spy features.

Case in point.

Re:Forget It.

[Kris_J]

My Mozilla love affair has more to do with my "having to patch and upgrade IE all the damn time"-affair.

Re:Blah. Who to root for?

[cfuse]

Scary thought - Perhaps some day, we'll have to thank (gasp!) Microsoft for creating something nice for us?

Burn him!

Re:Actual letter to RealNetworks

[Kris_J]

Thank you for making public my private thoughts without me having to go to the trouble of all the typing.

Real do, however, offer a particularly useful service. They help define the line between what's acceptable to install on a work PC and what's not. Now, most of you will disagree with this, but it's based not only on privacy and annoyance but also system stability and the latest versions of Real are fairly stable: RealOne is the worst acceptable thing to install on a work PC. Don't install anything worse than RealOne. After having RealOne installed for a few weeks, most users know exactly what I mean. It's like the service Acer provides when determining what PC to get.

Re:RealPlayer lost because it is inferior

[Spruce Moose]

Yeah, Microsoft should be able to bundle a ham sandwich [antitrustinstitute.org] in there if it wants to.

Re:And the outcome of the court case...

[Luke727]

The obligatory link [avmaria.com].

Re:Parent is a troll.

[Anonymous Coward]

Last time I had [RealPlayer] installed, a TSR program if it would always be running in the background

Hey, the 80's called. They wan't their terminology back!