RealNetworks Sues Microsoft Over Antitrust

Yahoo/AP ^ | 18 December 03 | RACHEL KONRAD

[Golden Eagle]

RealNetworks Sues Microsoft Over Antitrust

By RACHEL KONRAD, AP Business Writer

SAN JOSE, Calif. - RealNetworks Inc. filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp. on Thursday, alleging that its competitor has illegally monopolized the growing field of digital media by requiring every Windows user to take Microsoft's media player, whether they want it or not.

RealNetworks alleged that the software giant has violated state and federal antitrust laws, exploiting its monopoly to restrict competition.

The Seattle-based digital media company said Microsoft "pursued a broad course of predatory conduct over a period of years by abusing its monopoly power, resulting in substantial lost revenue and business for RealNetworks."

RealNetworks filed the lawsuit against Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft in federal court in San Jose because many of the experts and witnesses who will testify in the case live in Silicon Valley, RealNetworks spokesman Greg Chiemingo said.

Microsoft spokesman Jim Dessler said the company had not yet seen the lawsuit and he could not comment immediately. The company planned a statement later Thursday.

The lawsuit alleges that Microsoft, which builds the Windows operating system that controls more than 90 percent of the personal computers in the United States, restricts how PC makers install competing media players. Microsoft forces Windows users to accept Microsoft's media player, "whether they want it or not," to the exclusion of players made by RealNetworks or other competitors, RealNetworks alleges.

"While we much prefer competing in the market — as we are doing and have done for nine years — our board has made a carefully considered business decision to take this action to end Microsoft's illegal conduct and recover substantial damages on behalf of our shareholders," RealNetworks chairman and chief executive Rob Glaser said in a statement.

[xrp]

Bahahaha...RealNetworks is one to talk...especially since their REAL ONE spyware is the only software that can play .rm files/streams and it is a worthless, boating piece of sh*t.

[kinghorse]

It's too damn bad Microsoft couldn't be left alone to kill off RealNetwork's horrid media player.

[petitfour]

I hate Real Player.

[sigSEGV]

So they're su ...buffering, buffering, buffering... ing

[FreedomPoster]

There is no audio or video stream I need to see enough to make me load RealPlayer on any machine around here.

[Golden Eagle]

Bahahaha...RealNetworks is one to talk...especially since their REAL ONE spyware is the only software that can play .rm files/streams and it is a worthless, boating piece of sh*t.

LMAO, now granted, the audio spectrum is pathetically impossible to modify, the new color scheme is horrid, but they do have some good content like MLB.COM. I actually stream realaudio from my own personal website, they make it real easy to launch in the background and if the client has RA installed (which most do) they can start receiving huge audio files immediately on connection without even getting a popup of any sort. So IMO it has some uses and helped pioneer the streaming industry without question, which is why they are willing to go after M$.

[Mudcat]

I used to use RealAudio, but RealPlayer was junky & RealOne is just plain trash. Nonetheless, there are better players out there than what MS forces onto everyone.

[Blue Screen of Death]

Isn't Washington state senator Cantwell involved with Real Networks?

[DaiHuy]

Yes, it is how she paid for her campaign.

[rit]

that was funny...

[Leroy S. Mort]

Not to mention CEO Rob Glaser ponying up $2 million to ACT's Anybody But Bush campaign at a party hosted by George Soros..........

[newgeezer]

I hate Real Player.

Unlike MusicMatch Jukebox, I have found Real Player does a fantastic job of ripping CD audio to MP3.

[Ingtar]

I used to use RP to rip and others to play. Pretty much use Media Player now. Hard to beat the features being free, and it does seem to perform a bit better than Real.

[antiRepublicrat]

I might believe it if Real wasn't such utter crap when compared to Windows Media Player. There's no comparison to the Nescape/Explorer issue in the 90s.

There is an interesting issue around their WMV format though. People who made video editing tools were told to remove WMV compatability because of patents (people often used to convert to other more open formats). I'm not sure I like that since it has the effect of locking people into WMV when faced with WMV content.

[newgeezer]

I used to use RP to rip and others to play. Pretty much use Media Player now. Hard to beat the features being free, and it does seem to perform a bit better than Real.

I was under the impression MS Windows Media Player uses some sort of limiting copyright management feature when ripping. That and/or it rips to WMA instead of MP3.

So, I've never considered using it for ripping. Admittedly, if I rip 3 CDs in a year, it's a big year.

[Cicero]

Real has tried every possible trick to grab a monopoly themselves. For instance, the damned thing is installed on your computer, like it or not, whenever you install or upgrade AOL.

[kevkrom]

The big thing I seem to remember is that both Real Networks and Microsoft had, for a while, set things up so that automatic updates of their media programs would change file associations without asking the user. Now that both groups have stopped doing that, I don't think Real Networks has much of a case here -- they still have a proprietary format of their own, after all.

[CWOJackson]

That is easy to turn off in the options. I use Media Player to rip my CDs. I've also started using the MS .WMA format for my music verses MP3.

I tested a couple of pieces of music and found I got a better quality audio file with .WMA then I did with .MP3 and with a smaller file size.

I'm no real fan of MS but I have nothing against Media Player and the .WMA format.

[FastCoyote]

Real Player and Windows Media are crap compared to Irfanview as a viewer (not streaming) which is free. What I find hilarious is that so perfect Microsoft is again shown to be predatory (Bush2000 et al take note). Both real player and media player are spyware I don't want anything to do with. Wait till DRM and mediaplayer are merged, then everyone will be sol.