Richard Frank Re: Steve Cohen on MS' saying its the bugs

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Richard Frank's comment on the Quicktime issue.  
jamie

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Subject:  Re: Steve Cohen on MS' saying its the bugs
     Date:  Wed, 11 Nov 1998 11:41:52 -0500 (EST)
    From:  Richard C Frank <rcf@world.std.com>
 Reply-To: antitrust@essential.org
      To: Multiple recipients of list ANTITRUST <antitrust@essential.org>


First, as a software engineer, I can say that after reading the
assessment of the QuickTime "bugs" , that the whole situation does seem
like deliberate obfuscation on the part of Microsoft.

First, there is the funny issue of the file extension ".qt". What the
heck is a ".qt" file? As far as I know, Quicktime files are ".mov" files.
I've never seen a ".qt" file.

Second, the installer requires undocumented registry settings. It is
alleged that Apple knew of these settings. So, making plugins work with IE
requires knowledge of undocumented registry keys? What if MS decided that
little ol' me doesn't have enough bargaining chips for them to tell me
about these keys? It means that I won't be able to get my plugin to work,
and it will be "my fault".

The writing of plugins that compete with MS plugins becomes a "little
club" where only "dues paying" members can play.


MS and the "third party" explanations may be "correct", but they
actually bring this "little private club" to light, and I hope
Apple and other independent SW folks point this out so that the non
technical types aren't baffled by the BS.

In essence, as I understand it, this is an example of Microsoft
"withholding APIs" (the undocument registry keys) from third parties
(regardless of whether they allowed Apple the privilege of knowledge of
the key settings) in order to stifle competition.

 Rick


-- 
James Love, Consumer Project on Technology
P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
202.387.8030; f 202.234.5176
http://www.cptech.org, mailto:love@cptech.org