[Am-info] MS exec: What media-player squeeze?

[Gene Gaines]

,

Wow.  I didn't know that.

Mr. Poole has set me straight about RealNetworks, see below.

This must be a very good man.  I can just imagine how fast
on the suck-up you must be to remain a VP of Miucrosoft.

Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com
Sterling, Virginia




MS exec: What media-player squeeze?

Reuters
May 2, 2002, 11:00 AM PT

WASHINGTON--A Microsoft executive on Thursday denied that the
company used its Windows operating system monopoly to thwart rival
audio and video players, as alleged in its landmark antitrust
case.

Will Poole, a vice president in charge of Microsoft's Windows New
Media Platform Division, told federal court that RealNetworks was
the dominant media-playing software despite its complaints about
Microsoft.

"The inclusion of multimedia technology in Windows has not impeded
RealNetworks' ability to create competing media players that run
very well on Windows and to distribute and promote those media
players broadly to users," Poole said in written testimony.

Nine states seeking stiff antitrust sanctions against Microsoft
had called a RealNetworks executive to the witness stand in March
to bolster arguments that the software giant continues to abuse
its Windows monopoly power.

RealNetworks Vice President David Richards told U.S. District
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that Microsoft had withheld technical
data from RealNetworks to ensure that its player would not work as
well with Windows as the Windows Media Player.

The nine states want Microsoft to provide a version of Windows in
which add-on features like the media player can be easily removed
to level the playing field for Microsoft's competitors.

These states, including California, Connecticut and Iowa, have
rejected a proposed settlement reached between Microsoft and the
U.S. Justice Department in November that would let computer makers
promote rival software by hiding--but not removing--certain
Windows features.

Microsoft has said its Windows program is a tightly bound set of
components that rely on each other to work properly.

Making the Windows Media Player removable might be good for
Microsoft competitors such as RealNetworks, Poole said.

"I am confident that it would not be good for developers of
software and Web sites that rely on (media) functionality in
Windows or for consumers generally because the performance of
their programs would be degraded," he said.

A federal appeals court last year upheld original trial court
findings that Microsoft illegally maintained its Windows operating
system monopoly through acts that included efforts to quash
potential competition from Netscape's Internet browser.

Poole, Microsoft's 15th witness, told the judge that RealNetworks'
media players pose no threat to Microsoft's Windows monopoly.

The hearings on the non-settling states' demands are now in their
seventh week. Kollar-Kotelly is also weighing whether to endorse
the proposed settlement signed by nine other states' that were
party to the original case.