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Real Sues Baseball Over Windows Media 349

Posted by simoniker from the not-happy-bunnies dept.
westlake writes 'According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, RealNetworks has sued Major League Baseball over its use of Windows Media. The dispute began with MLB's decision to stream exhibition games in WMA format only, under its revised contract, Real claims all live MLB streams must include RealMedia as an option. The piece states: 'Windows Media Player controlled about 34 percent of the U.S. market, compared with nearly 19 percent for RealOne player and 10 percent for QuickTime player, according to January data from Nielsen/NetRatings.'"
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Real Sues Baseball Over Windows Media More

Real Sues Baseball Over Windows Media

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  • I'm so torn (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:00PM (#8528322)
    I hope Real wins, Major League Baseball sticks by the terms of the contract they signed, and Microsoft has to start dealing with competition.

    But on the other hand, if all three parties got wiped out by a freak comet impact, I'd be even happier!

    • Re:I'm so torn (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RazzleFrog ( 537054 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:04PM (#8528377)
      They don't show you a copy of the contract but if it says Season and doesn't specifically say pre-season or spring training then Real has no case. The baseball "season" doesn't start until The Yankees play Tampa Bay in Tokyo on March 30th. I think even a 5 year old could tell you that.
    • I have to disagree. Often, those who dislike baseball simply do not know enough about it. I, for one, would be quite dismayed if MLB were to disappear. For example, as a resident of the Boston area, it is virtually impossible for me not to be a Red Sox fan; half the fun is knowing that if (when!) we win the World Series, New England will shut down for months in celebration. (Then Hell freezes over and pigs start flying...)

      On another note, baseball is one of the more computer-friendly sports in that watchi

    • Re:I'm so torn (Score:2, Interesting)

      by PD ( 9577 )
      Actually, this is bad for Real. Audiences will be able to bring up two identical streams side-by-side on the computers. They will see that Windows Media looks a lot better. Oops.

  • One of these days.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tangwei ( 704210 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:00PM (#8528326)
    before I die, I'd love to see a company actually try to innovate, instead of sueing.
    • I'd love to see them die instead of saying their innovating...

    • Re:One of these days.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pigscanfly.ca ( 664381 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:04PM (#8528364) Homepage
      I tried that once
      Now I highered a lawyer (just jokeing)
      Small companies tend to innovate because they cant affored the legal mussle required for the sueing phase of business :-)
      • Funny, I tried to sue you for egregious spelling errors, but my lawsuit got kicked out of court, too.

        It's a rough world, isn't it?

      • Re:One of these days.... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Cornelius the Great ( 555189 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:58PM (#8528765)
        But litigation tends to pay off more nowadays (look at SCO, duh) than actual innovation. I hate to say this, but it sounds as if lawyers are cheaper than R&D costs for larger businesses.

        Let's face it, Real (tm) movies suck, and their streamed movies suck even more, especially over a DSL connection. I couldn't ever bring myself to even attempt to watch a game streamed with Real media- if any action (such as a ball being hit and camera quickly pans to wherever the ball goes) were to take place, the entire display turns into a mess of pixels, and I find it difficult to actually follow.

        I hate to say it, but MS's video looks better at the bitrates that I can enjoy (about 512k).

        To top it all off, Realplayer isn't free (except that the free version is littered with adware/spyware). MS mediaplayer is (provided you're running Windows, of course), and requires no payment or ads, outside of the video.

        Realplayer's suit in this case may have merit (if MLB didn't abide by the contract), but I wouldn't install Realplayer if they were broadcasting free porn, let alone baseball.

    • Re:One of these days.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by catch23 ( 97972 ) * on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:09PM (#8528418)
      I don't think innovation here is the point though. RealOne may have great innovations, but windows media is built into almost every computer that runs the microsoft windows. RealOne will simply wiped out because nobody will go through the trouble of downloading it if windows media is already available.

      Just think on the Linux side. Mplayer is a great player, but you have to download & install it. Suppose KDE included some great media player bundled along and KDE had 90% of the Linux desktop market. Who in their right mind would go through the trouble of downloading and installing Mplayer even though Mplayer might have better innovation??

    • Re:One of these days.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by realdpk ( 116490 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:12PM (#8528443) Homepage Journal
      Right. One day, I'd love to see a company actually follow through with a contract. Oh wait, most do!

      This is a basic contract dispute. It's not Real suing out of the blue just because Windows Media Player exists.

    • Re:One of these days.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kfg ( 145172 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:14PM (#8528450)
      So do I, but this suit has nothing at all to do with technology. It's a simple contract dispute over streaming rights.

      And a pretty stupid one, I might add.

      And it all really comes down to "content providers" such as MLB wishing to control the content from cradle to grave. The cost of this suit is to be legitimately charged against their unwillingness to stream in an open standard format.

      It's all about DRM and who gets to tell your eyeballs what they can and cannot look at, what they must look at, and when.

      KFG
    • "before I die, I'd love to see a company actually try to innovate, instead of sueing. "

      Didja read the article? Heh. Believe it or not, this isn't your typical "hey you forgot to include us!" case, it's a "you signed something saying you'd do something and now you're not, stick to your contract."

      If they were suing without this contractual obligation over their heads, I'd agree with you.

  • Looks like (Score:2, Insightful)

    by iminplaya ( 723125 )
    a regular contract dispute to me. "Where's the beef?"

  • spyware (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I don't use RealPlayer at all. If for some reason a website offers only RealPlayer videos I just do without. not a big deal for me. much more annoying, as you say, to remove the tentacles of Real after you've installed their "free" player.

    -sweatyb

    • Real's New Slogan (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:17PM (#8528479)
      Real Player: Free as in syphilis.

    • Re:spyware (Score:2, Insightful)

      by icebike ( 68054 )
      Well some people like baseball more than they hate Real. Sue Us.

      I can't bet anything to play unless go to my windows
      computer, but I work on Linux and I like to listen to a ball game now and then.

      I would not have paid $14 to MLB for a season pass to listen to the games if i knew I couldn't use my primary computer - linux.

      Supposidly there are MS media player alternatives for linux buy so far nothing work for MLB streams.
    • Parent is (Score:1, Offtopic), but I'm in 100% agreement with it.

      Over here in the UK the BBC has a radio station called "radio 1" which is the flagship of national radio in Britain. They have a website directly off the bbc site (bbc.co.uk - bbc.co.uk/radio1) and they have streaming for it. On a Tuesday night they do a rock show, with Mary Anne Hobgoblin, and that is worth waiting up for. I have my awesome 5.1 surround system here, with great bass and minted high tones, but I cannot listen to it because th

      • Re:Offtopic but ... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by AKnightCowboy ( 608632 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:56PM (#8528754)
        On a Tuesday night they do a rock show, with Mary Anne Hobgoblin, and that is worth waiting up for. I have my awesome 5.1 surround system here, with great bass and minted high tones, but I cannot listen to it because they stream in RealAudio.

        The thing I don't quite understand is if these stations are just streaming audio (and usually just stereo audio at lower than CD quality), why don't they just stream it as mp3 or whatever Shoutcast uses? It works great on every platform I've tried it on and doesn't need some proprietary spyware-bloated application to listen. They could still offer a 56kbps for modem users and a 128kbps stream for everyone else. With video it becomes more complicated of course, but with broadband you might as well just use DivX or even mpeg2 to stream your stuff instead of proprietary codecs again.

    • Re:spyware (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Rick Zeman ( 15628 )
      I don't use RealPlayer at all. If for some reason a website offers only RealPlayer videos I just do without. not a big deal for me. much more annoying, as you say, to remove the tentacles of Real after you've installed their "free" player.

      That's ironic, because that's what I do if something is WMA-only. And if I something's offered in both streams, I'll choose Real every time.
      And if I want to uninstall RealPlayer, I'd just drag the app to the trash and empty it. It's gone. Wait, you can't do that on W

  • Can this be turned into a video game? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Bendebecker ( 633126 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:02PM (#8528339) Journal
    Just imagine it: Major Leaguers with bats chasing down lawyers. GTA only with not so innocent civilians...

  • Hey, i'm with realplayer. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gannoc ( 210256 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:02PM (#8528344)

    They're just being proactive instead of waiting for Microsoft to "innovate" them off the map.

  • What's wrong? (Score:5, Informative)

    by powerpuffgirls ( 758362 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:02PM (#8528345)
    I can't see what's wrong with the lawsuit. RealNetworks has a contract with MLB.

    Please note that Real is not asking MLB to only broadcast in Real, as the article stated, "MLB is free to use Microsoft's Windows Media format if it wants, but under the Feb. 8 agreement, it also must use RealNetworks' RealMedia format to provide live coverage of the entire baseball season, including spring training."

    • Re:What's wrong? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by YrWrstNtmr ( 564987 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:14PM (#8528457)
      Depends on whose definition of season is used. What does the contract actually say? Specific dates, or just "the entire season"?

      Evidently, Real believes that includes spring training. MLB seems to have a different idea.

      Personally, I think the season begins at opening day, and ends on the last game of the regular season. The post-season start just after that.
      But then I don't watch/follow baseball, and I'd never bother to try to watch a game on TV, much less on the PC. Having it in Real format would make me enjoy it even less.

      Shame on Real for not being more specific.

    • Re:What's wrong? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Weirsbaski ( 585954 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @11:34PM (#8528966)
      Please note that Real is not asking MLB to only broadcast in Real, as the article stated, "MLB is free to use Microsoft's Windows Media format if it wants, but under the Feb. 8 agreement, it also must use RealNetworks' RealMedia format to provide live coverage of the entire baseball season, including spring training."

      What's the problem? MLB could follow Real's footsteps in guiding the user to the preferred format. To find a web link to a Real stream, you have to click through a procession of fourteen different links, including three white-on-white-text links and one link cleverly covered by a flash animation.

  • What's the other 37%? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Trillian_1138 ( 221423 ) <slashdot@ f r i d a y t h ang.com> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:02PM (#8528347)
    I admit I haven't RTFA, but 34% (WMP) + 19% (Real) + 10% (QT) leaves 37% to add to 100. I'm assuming this is only streaming video, so what takes up that extra market share?

    -Trillian

  • Real = RIAA (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pholower ( 739868 ) <longwoodtrail AT yahoo DOT com> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:02PM (#8528353) Homepage Journal
    Real is just doing what other failing industries are doing. Biting the hand that feeds them. Real hasn't been losing money because of MLB didn't want to renew the contract as it was previously, it has been losing money because it sucks. Large groups of people (no matter how stupid) will eventually pick the better format. I am not saying that Windows Media is the better format, but when you only have two options, Real or Windows Media, you be the Judge.

  • Is preseason real baseball?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MagicDude ( 727944 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:03PM (#8528360)
    The disagreement is about MLB not using real to broadcast the preseason games, which Real believes is part of their contract. This kind of debate is something jocks can provide us the most insight on, on whether preseason is real baseball or not, on a technical and a meaningful level (Does the preseason really matter of affect how the regular season will go?)
  • While I haven't read the contract, and am not a lawyer, based on the information in the article this is a stupid lawsuit by Real. They are alleging that the phrase "baseball season" in their contract with MLB includes the exhibition serieses and the World Series.

    Every baseball fan knows the term "preseason" and "postseason". Apparently Real Networks does not, and thinks it's grounds for a lawsuit.

    Anybody got deeper info?
    • No, they most definitely know the difference. They're just exploting the semantics of the legal document to make money and get attention and market share.
    • You might have a point if the contract said "baseball regular season". But apparently it doesn't.

      when a team loses in the playoffs the players and staff talk about getting back there "next season" and "doing better next season". Everyone understands they're talking about doing better in the "post-season" part of the season.

      All I'm saying is "pre-season" and "post-season" can just as easily be considered part of the general baseball season.

      Of course, this all should have been hammered out in the origina

    • Re:This is ridiculous. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:41PM (#8528662)
      "Baseball season" is not a commonly used term at all. "Regular season" is the term you use when you want to describe period that excludes "preseason" and "postseason" games.

      Yes, the "pre-" and "post-" prefixes usually imply that it it's a time period outside of the usual unmodified use of the word... but in terms of sports seasons this may be questionable.

      The word "entire" or "regular" would have made this contract nice and clear. Since it isn't clear, that's why they go to court...
      • Though I see your point, I cannot imagine a lawyer being insane enough to use a vague phrase like that to include the somewhat ill-defined non-regular-season schedule. Seems to me that if they meant "everything", they would have it spelled out, otherwise it would actually refer to the regular season.

        It would be valuable if the article actually quoted the relevant portion of the contract.

    • Every baseball fan knows the term "preseason" and "postseason". Apparently Real Networks does not, and thinks it's grounds for a lawsuit.

      You seem to be confusing "the season" with "the regular season", during the regular season you often do mention just "the season" for efficiency but I've never felt that there's any confusion in the fact that in baseball, as with hockey and football, "the season" in divided into 3 portions, the preseason, the regular season, and the postseason, the term pre/post season

  • How were neilson ratings gathered? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Hungus ( 585181 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:04PM (#8528368) Journal
    Since real has licensed QT codecs I wonder how they figured out who has what penetration? They must be looking at what people are using to view/listen to the media as opposed to actual installed user base.
  • I take it MLB didn't get "Expressed Written Consent" for that.

  • Real Supports Other Platforms (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jpgrimes ( 15330 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:06PM (#8528392) Homepage
    I think slashdot users should take note due to platform selection. I have paid for the mlb broadcasts the last two years since I could listen to the Redsox in Baltimore at home and work. Now, with windows media being the only stream being offered, I will not be able to listen to the broadcasts as windows media player doesn't support either my linux machines (or solaris the other OS I use). So MLB take note, I probably won't renew this year if media player is all you offer.

  • bah (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld.gmail@com> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:08PM (#8528404) Homepage
    I don't understand libertarians. All you guys complain about is how the judicial system interferes with capitalism blah blah blah, and that they should stay out of everything except contract enforcement. Real brings a breach of contract action and you STILL complain! This has nothing to do with the quality of Real's software (yes it sucks, and it always has), it has to do with a CONTRACT.

    • Re:bah (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Trogre ( 513942 )
      All you guys complain about is how the judicial system interferes with capitalism

      I think you'll find that it's the other way around.

  • Misleading title (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:08PM (#8528408) Homepage Journal
    "westlake writes 'According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, RealNetworks has sued Major League Baseball over its use of Windows Media. "

    Wrong. They're suing MLB for NOT using Real. This news would be mildly more interesting if MS told MLB not to use Real. But the article doesn't say that happened, so put your pitchfork down. I can't believe that's the headline over there.

    Actually, Real's probably in the right over this assuming the contract is as clearly stated as it is mentioned in the article.

  • text of lawsuit (Score:5, Funny)

    by dboyles ( 65512 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:12PM (#8528445) Homepage
    PLAINTIFF, Real Networks, Inc. hereby does... ::Buffering...::Buffering...::

  • Even dumber than it looks... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mtnharo ( 523610 ) <greengeekNO@SPAMearthlink.net> on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:13PM (#8528448) Homepage
    Amazingly, this isn't even as heavy of a dispute as it sounds, according to the article, the entire lawsuit depends on when the "season" starts. MLB has been putting up audio streams of exhibition games in WMA format only, while Real is claiming they have to put up RM streams too. The contract states that they must use RM during the season. Apparently it's time for the courts to break out their dictionaries and grammar books. Does the "season" include the "pre-season," which technically is before, and not part of, the official "season"? Same with playoffs and the World Series?

    Even better, Real is desperate to hold on to this contract, since apparently the old contract (which granted exclusivity to Real) was costing them more than it brought in. Maybe they'll finally create a profitable business model? Hey there's a good one, Real posts a profit while streaming a Red Sox World Series victory...

  • Real media, Real proprietary (Score:3, Insightful)

    by thirty2bit ( 685528 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:18PM (#8528486)
    As much as I dislike the Micrsoft monopoly (Microsopoly? Whatever...), I dislike everything Real-associated.

    Besides the Spyware, besides having to go through heck to even find the free Realplayer on their site.... the galling part is anything you put into a Real format is stuck there. Just try and find some apps that convert their sound or video formats to some other format.... it's a challenge.

    Pot... kettle... black!

  • I have prepared a response. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Raven42rac ( 448205 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:19PM (#8528492)
    I have prepared a response, I believe that (buffering, buffering, buffering) the case has no (buffering, buffering, buffering) ahh the hell with it.
  • The Wall Street Journal said in an similar article today:

    "RealNetworks has become increasingly willing to use litigation to defend its position in online media, after a sustained attack from Microsoft in the market"

    National Public Radio's Cartalk website dropped RealNetwork recently for related tactics.

    If I were a potential customer, I might think twice about signing up with them in the future.

    Could be time to do a short sale, although these things can take a while to come to fruition.

    RNWK's CEO may

  • Market Control? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sPaKr ( 116314 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:19PM (#8528500)
    How do you control a market? these are not commodities. A user can have all of these, or none, or any combination there of installed. Its not like an OS where the computer is running one OS at a time (side stepping the virutalizaton issue). So install base isnt a zero sum. Now you can distrubte the same content in multiple methods, so again this isnt zero sum. So HOW can you have a market share. Its not like the rating what people are watching as one tv can only be tuned to one thing at a given time (again side stepping PIP). Shouldnt it be the percentage of people that have the compatiable player installed. So for all internet connected client machines, X% have a compatiable WMA player, Y% have Real, and Z% have Quicktime. X, Y and Z have no corelation ( assuming players dont attack each other). So you cant 'control' the market but rather its a progess meter on how well you have been able to penetrate the market. It is completly possible for windows to have 100%, while Real has 100%, and Quicktime again has 100%, that would mean every client machine has all three players installed. If that is the case who has 'controled' the market?

  • Real CEO is a baseball team owner, too (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eggboard ( 315140 ) * on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @10:26PM (#8528552) Homepage
    As I pointed out in a blog entry today [glennf.com], Real's chairman and CEO (and founder) is also a minority owner of The Seattle Mariners. Thus, by Real suing MLB, Glaser is -- in part -- suing himself. Why are no reporters covering this aspect?
    • Real's chairman and CEO (and founder) is also a minority owner of The Seattle Mariners. Thus, by Real suing MLB, Glaser is -- in part -- suing himself. Why are no reporters covering this aspect?

      Because it isn't even interesting as a footnote...

      I'm sure you can think of plenty of employees (even higher-level managers) who've sued the company they work for. They aren't really suing themselves, they're just suing their bosses, really.
  • The RealMedia breach-of-contract issue aside, I'm much more worried that places like this are considering switching exclusively to Microsoft-controlled formats.

    What ever happened to the more free formats like DivX?

    • A revamped DivX would be nice but M$ would just buy it. What really surprises me is the number of people who seem to care about baseball.

      I gave it up after the 91 strike and a pox on all their houses.
  • What just happened to my squadron of uber-kittens? They've gone!

    Has /. had an upgrade?

  • ...that Real is using the SCO business model, now SCO can sue them for patent violations, MLB can fight off Real with it's legal team, and Real can sit in the corner claiming MLB has done some bad stuff but if they show what it was, it can lead to more bad stuff.

  • Well... (Score:2, Funny)

    by SeaDour ( 704727 )
    If everyone followed Real's business strategy, Coke would be sueing many restaurants for not being offered alongside Pepsi.

    • Re:Well... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by higuy48 ( 568572 )
      Coke doesn't have an exclusive contract that requires that Coke be served at restaurant X. It's as simple as that. I've seen a few other threads that went by your logic. The bottom line is that if the contract mentions the baseball "season" but not the "preseason," Real will lose.
  • As mentioned by other posters, here's the previous slashdot article that talked about cartalk dropping Real because it was extremely devious about making available their "free" player (i.e. it required way too much work to surf through all the clutter just to find it):

    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/31/210202 &mode=thread [slashdot.org]
  • When I bought my season audio subscription, the website stated that Real Audio was required to get the streams...much to my surprise, the streams came over in Windows Media.

    I was a mmight annoyed, and will be writing soon to MLB asking why their website is so out of date or just plain wrong.

  • Latest RealOne Player has *gasp* better manners! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by g_adams27 ( 581237 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @11:08PM (#8528823)
    While older versions of Real's media players (RealPlayer 8, older RealOne players, RealJukebox) were notorious for nagging you with content you didn't want, tracking your usage information, and making it hard to disable the above "features", the latest incarnation of RealOne Player is actually...

    <are you sitting down?>

    ...much politer and less slimy than previous versions!

    Well, OK, maybe not right out of the box. But at least you don't have to resort to modifying registry entries, deleting executable helper apps, or deciphering ambiguously-worded menu items to make it behave.

    Even better, a senior RealNetworks engineer has taken the time to provide a step-by-step guide detailing how to turn of all the annoying RealOne features! [doom9.org]

  • Well guys I run Solaris and have been using Real Player 8 for most of my mp3 and rm files. I do not know if Quicktime let alone Windows media player are even avaliable for my platform. I have never had a problem with Real Player, except finding the one for your platform of choice can be a little daunting. I just don't want to be forced to run other OSes just to watch streaming media.
  • Are there any other big players or is it all niche stuff after them? Any time I see an other category this large, I have to wonder why. It says to me that there is still a good sized portion of the market in play.

  • Lawsuit is Invalid (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Stoggie ( 95578 ) on Wednesday March 10, 2004 @11:22PM (#8528887)
    The lawsuit should be ruled invalid. MLB bought a service. They don't have to use it if they don't want to. It's like If I don't play my old nintendo anymore even though it's there. They still have the option to use it if they want to though because they bought the option for the year.

    Real needs to stop complaining and be happy they got the money they got.
    Ps: Stop the lawsuits, we look like crap in other countries.

    • Re:Lawsuit is Invalid (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Spy Hunter ( 317220 ) on Thursday March 11, 2004 @01:02AM (#8529422) Journal
      They don't have to use it if they don't want to.

      Says who? Did you read the contract? I thought not. It would be perfectly legal for the contract to require them to use the product, and that appears to be what happened here. The story says the lawsuit revolves not around whether or not MLB is obligated to use Real, but whether spring training is a part of the "baseball season" as defined in the contract. There is apparently no question that the contract does obligate them to use Real to broadcast the season.

  • Is there some clause that says MLB can terminate it if Real's software/format/spyware sucks? If there is I'd say MLB will win this one easily.
  • I don't like Real, I don't like WMA/Microsoft, and I don't like baseball! AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!
  • 2 Questions:

    1) For audio streaming, why doesn't everyone just use MP3? What is the benefit of using other formats? I doubt the bandwidth savings is worth the hassle.

    2) For video and audio streaming, why doesn't everyone just use .MP4? That's MPEG-4 + AAC audio, it's an ISO standard, etc etc. Same question as above.

  • Why all the fuss? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ya know, I don't understand why any of this even has to come to a contract. I'll admit I didn't RTFA. Perhaps I'm naive (and I probably am), but can I not download (perhaps purchase) the server/streaming software from MS/Real/Apple, install it, and broadcast whatever the hell I want, without paying royalties to any of those companies? I must admit, I'm primarily a Mac user, so if a site is shortsighted enough to only provide their content in MS or Real formats, I just do without. I know MS has a player for

  • Big Money! (Score:3, Funny)

    by mumblestheclown ( 569987 ) on Thursday March 11, 2004 @12:02AM (#8529139)
    Yes, I hear there's big money in streaming pre-season baseball games over the internet. the ad-sales alone are probably worth dozens of dollars! dozens!

  • More fucking whining from Real (Score:3, Funny)

    by c0d3h4x0r ( 604141 ) on Thursday March 11, 2004 @12:06AM (#8529161) Homepage Journal
    They can't win in the marketplace by using their spyware tactics or actually creating a quality product, so now they're trying to remove the ability for businesses to choose any technology other than RealMedia. The obvious desperation here is sickly comic.

    I think we should load SCO, Real, and George W on board a European mars probe and launch it, with specific instructions to crash-land on Mars and never be heard from again... after all, Bush wants to go to Mars; SCO could finally find fossil evidence to support their claim that their propriety UNIX code is the basis for all life; and Real could start streaming video to outer space, instead of to us here on Earth.

  • Multicast (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MrChuck ( 14227 ) on Thursday March 11, 2004 @12:55AM (#8529384)
    I listened to the Stones and to Severe Tire Damage(*) back in 94 with MULTICAST. C'mon people! This streaming crap is over, it's so NCP, so microsoft.

    It's just ungraceful and inefficient. Oh wait, I already said microsoft.

    Yes, you need a format. Some might suggest OGG, or mp3, but AIFF would work just fine.

    From the source, the sound leaves ONCE!

    If I listen to it, my little request packet heads towards the source. The routers along the way get the notification that I want to listen to M'Cast address xxx on port P. I get to the source as the first person. There is now a "stream" running to my machine.

    If my neighbor decides to listen, her packets go upstream and hit the router we share. DONE, that router gets 1 stream in and sends it to both of our machines. (where right now with stupid cast, it gets 2 in and sends one to each machine). 50,000 people on comcast listening? Fine, the comcast cloud gets 1 feed in and sends them through the it's cloud to 50k people. If 20k are in austin and another 30k are in boston, then a stream goes to each city ONCE and the local routers send them to all the people.

    Grace; elegance.

    Neither Real nor MS would know crap about that, eh?

    -

    * STD was, in fact, the FIRST BAND EVER to be played on the Internet's MBONE when they were playing at a picnic at PARC(?) at Van Jacobsen was just looking for something to blast out nearby. Google found me this [std.org]. I'd hate to actually work to find this stuff...

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