Your second point contradicts your first assertion.
My whole point AGAIN, why are users making it so easy for people to gather information?
Not when you consider the fines/fees assessed to Real Network; and the fact that there are now numerous non-Real Network players for the .ram format. If you take a look at how Real Networks was (notice past tense) increasing in market share, and now is a non-market dominate force; you can see that the company forfeited consumer trust and goodwill for a short term and short sighted gain. RealNetworks is not considering Bankruptcy ... this would indicate to me that they have made some stupid decisions in the past that eroded consumer confidence. Now it's time to pay the piper.
""The free version of RealJukebox, which has about 13.5 million registered users, prompts new users for their names and e-mail addresses before they are assigned an identifying number," according to an E-Commerce Times story by Mary Hillebrand on November 9, 1999. Talk about a substantial market research survey group! "