RealNetworks Sues Microsoft Over Antitrust Issues 491
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?"
It might werk. (Score:5, Interesting)
How Similar? (Score:1, Interesting)
That said, I probably only used Windows Media Player in the first place because I already had it.
Incompetent DOJ (Score:5, Interesting)
Ask yourself, how FAIR can competition be when one application gets deep penetration into the consumer market while others are locked out on purpose?
same wine different bottle (Score:2, Interesting)
Violation of the settlement? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is that really why Real Player died out... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have four words for them. (Score:5, Interesting)
Good god, I don't want them to win. I'd hate to have to remove this shit from my newly purchased PC.
Re:FUD!!!!!!!!1 (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Dude, yer gettin' a Dell! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Will the result be the same? (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyone.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Personally, I think it's a bloated piece of crudware. It pops up zillions of ads for garbage, the player's slow,
Anyway, this lawsuit has no merit. My Dell laptop came preloaded with MusicMatch, WMP, and RealOne! Three video/audio players! Nobody needs that much. Standardize on maximum 2. I uninstalled RealPlayer because it was so worthless...
Consider this two thumbs way way down for Real.
Re:Blah. Who to root for? (Score:5, Interesting)
Y'know, I just pondered this for a moment, and find it somewhat odd...
Years ago, back in the prime of the dialup days, we just couldn't hate any company more than AOL. Anything involving them might as well have had leprosy, as far as geeks felt.
And yet now, with this tossup (WMP vs RealOne), I just realized that I currently use both a browser (Mozilla) and a media player (WinAmp) heavily funded by AOL.
Strange, how times can change. And yet, if you asked me my general opinion of AOL, I'd still say they suck - But I suppose I have to thank them for sponsoring two pretty nice programs.
Scary thought - Perhaps some day, we'll have to thank (gasp!) Microsoft for creating something nice for us? Eeeek. Time to go hide under the bed for a while.
But how do you real-ly feel? (Score:3, Interesting)
I sic'd the state attorney general on them when they had a premium service with few-click signup for a free trial. To unsubscribe, there was a web page. That did nothing. After I entered my unsubscribe info, the page digested it and then gave me a phone number to call.
Completely bogus barrier to cancel. The AG contacted them, and they replied that it's an accepted practice by such paragons of virtue as AOL.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Blah. Who to root for? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Will the result be the same? (Score:2, Interesting)
As an aside, did Microsoft ever charge Mac users for IE?
MSN Messenger. (Score:1, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Dear Real (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Will the result be the same? (Score:3, Interesting)
True, but don't forget about other MS activities. Like bundling agreements with OEMs, who charged you for Windows even if you didn't want it or have them install it. (If they were even allowed to forego installation!)
Basically, if you bought a system, you got it and paid for it whether you wanted to or not.
Re:Dear Real (Score:1, Interesting)
Are
It's like choosing between a punch to the face or a punch to the groin--you're not gonna like it either way, but when you're icing down your face, you'll never think for a second that you have chosen...poorly.
Microsoft, I beg you--do the one thing that you do better than any other software company that has ever existed and pull the plug on these miserable bastards.
Re:Will the result be the same? (Score:3, Interesting)
So by the same token, Real is screwed because WMP is part of the OS?
If MS puts Money into the OS, then Quicken is out of luck? What about if they start bundling their own PDF writer... Adobe has no recourse? Where does adding a product to the operating system *start* being anti-competitive?
Besides, you could download IE for Windows for free from their website. So all that's really true about what you're saying is that you can't run it without having Windows, which (theoretically) you have to pay MS for. But plenty of people got Windows before IE, and still got IE for free. How is that not giving it away? (not to mention that you could also download the Mac version for free...)
an alternative to RealPlayer (Score:2, Interesting)
A while back I was getting extremely frustrated with RealPlayer. All I wanted to do was watch some streaming video on the internet. You think this would be a pretty simple task. Not so when it's in RealPlayer format (.ram, .rm, .ra). RealPlayer has got to be the absolute most CRAPTACULAR piece of software ever made in the existence of man. It's worse than anything M$ has ever produced, hands down.
My problem was with the pop-ups, always asking me to register, sign over my soul and my first-born, etc etc. I plowed through this garbage, usually cancelling the registration process, and most of the time (if I was lucky) I would be able to watch the streaming video that I wanted to watch in the first place. However, one time RealPlayer just stopped working. No warning about not having registered, nothing. The RealPlayer window would come up, say it was connecting, but then just die. No streaming video. For no reason. (At first I thought it might be something wrong with the site providing the streaming video, but I tried some sites that I knew should work for sure, and the same thing happened.)
This was the last straw. I made a concerted effort to find an alternative product to RealPlayer that would still allow me to watch real media files. I struck gold when I encountered this message on usenet suggesting JetAudio: message [google.com].
I've used JetAudio since then. No annoying pop-ups, and fairly stable. I'm using version 5.1 basic. YMMV with whatever the latest release is, but I'm much happier with this product than I ever was with RealPlayer.
(BTW, I'm in no way affiliated with JetAudio.)
Does anyone LIKE real player? (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you all have long term memory loss? (Score:3, Interesting)
WMP, and IE are better, faster and less intrusive because they're funded out of revenues from something else. The coders just have to focus on making the program better. They don't have to worry about a revenue model.
Of course WMP is better than Real. That's the fucking point you bozos. Microsoft doesn't have to play by the same rules because they are funding WMP through the Microsoft tax. Real One has to make money.
The only people that can beat Microsoft are us Open Source folks because we don't worry about a revenue model either.
I'll agree that a pox on both their houses is in order, but Microsoft is abusing their monopoly in exactly the same way that they did to cut off Netscape's air supply and knife the baby.
It's just a media player... (Score:3, Interesting)
And browsers, everybody needs a browser, so who cares. Netscape can go out of business.
And CD burning software, everybody needs that these days. Ahead can go out of business.
Office software? Everybody needs that, so Corel and Lotus can go out of business.
Microsoft should simply bundle MS Office with Windows and save us another purchase. Oh, most OEM's do that already?
Games? Heck, Microsoft makes those too! Why do we need other companies for games and consoles?
Movies? Everybody watches movies, Microsoft should develop a way to watch hi-res digital movies! Oh, they did?
Microsoft has been looking for a CPU design team too...
At what point is the monopoly so strong that you people quit whining that it is "just application X and everyone needs it"?
a RealAlternative (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm with the rest of
file. If I had it to do over again, hell yeah, I would do it differently.
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Re:Try RealAlternative if you hate RealOne. (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm with the rest of
file. If I had it to do over again, hell yeah, I would do it differently. But I have many, many hours of audio files and I'm NOT starting over from scratch.
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Re:Blah. Who to root for? (Score:2, Interesting)
Scary thought - Perhaps some day, we'll have to thank (gasp!) Microsoft for creating something nice for us? Eeeek. Time to go hide under the bed for a while.
To stay on a Hitlerian theme, why do you think it is called the "People's Car". Yup, that delightful vehicle so beloved by hippies and yuppies was heavily promoted by The Man himself as an example of the coming good times.
Don't you just hate it when people don't get credit for the _good_ things they do?