Micosoft in legal case - shock

[kingandy]

Guh.

Microsoft is accused of "abusing its dominant market position" by bundling Windows Media Player with the OS.  Their defence?

Linda Averett of Microsoft told the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg on Friday that many websites and software products would not work without the Windows Media Player.

She said that without the player, customers who buy computers with Windows "are very likely to feel deceived when they find that websites don't work".

Yeah.  No shit.  Well maybe you shouldn't be encouraging people to build websites that are wholly reliant on your software then, eh?  That's abuse of your market position, right there.

Comments

[mrssshhh.livejournal.com]

Nook is exactly right - this isn't someone standing up to Microsoft and saying "you're stopping people from making a choice!", it's about RealMedia wanting a larger market share for their quite honestly inferior product.

Me? I encourage people to use Media Player; it, along with DirectX, are probably the two best products MS have ever produced, and they're both free. Personally I use Winamp as a player, but I use Media Player to encode music as I find WMA to be the best format for most of my useage.

The 'internet use' defence isn't the best ever, but you have to realise that RM are trying to fuck them on technicalities, so they have to fight back with technicalities.

WMA

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

I would disagree, WMA has many classic MS problems, but the most important being you are beholden to MS to access your files, they decide if your allowed to access or distribute them.

You should be suspicious of entrusting your data to any undocumented or legally encumbered format.

Re: WMA

[mrssshhh.livejournal.com]

Hmm. No. Should you decide to encode your own WMA files, and don't have DRM turned on (off is default) then you can do whatever you like with your WMAs. I happily use mine on at least four different PCs and 3 mobile MP3/WMA players.

If you choose to activate DRM, or download DRM'ed files, then yes, you're limited, but no more than you are with I-Tunes' MP3s.

Re: WMA

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

"and don't have DRM turned on (off is default)"

The question is how long you get the choice? At the end of the day Microsoft can turn around and say no, you can't access that file with anything but their software (because the format is undocumented or protected by patents) and they enforce mandatory DRM.

But its ok, you can trust your data to Microsoft if you want to, its your choice ;-)

Re: WMA

[mrssshhh.livejournal.com]

Anything I've already ripped is safe - it lives on burned disks as well as the hard disks of the PCs. Should MS change their mind in future and enforce DRM, then i'll find a different format. Until then, I'm fine with WMAs.