Microsoft Execs Defend Media Player

Will Poole, who oversees Microsoft's digital media and anti-piracy divisions, testified that the latest digital media program from RealNetworks, called RealOne, relies on key features in Windows.

"As a result, RealOne Player would not run on a version of Windows from which all of the multimedia (interfaces) have been removed," Poole testified. That might occur if computer manufacturers were allowed to remove Microsoft's Windows Media Player.

RealNetworks vice president David Richards, who testified for the states in late March, said his company would be willing and able to create a self-contained version of its player that didn't rely so much on Windows.

Poole also disputed allegations that Microsoft's newest Windows XP contains incompatibilities that make the operating system favor Microsoft's media player even if a user indicates a preference for another product.

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There are over 250 million users of RealNetworks' players, Poole said, and most of them run the players on Windows operating systems.

"The fact that so many users choose to use RealNetworks' media players ... is evidence that RealNetworks' media players work very well on Microsoft's operating systems," Poole testified.

Over 90 percent of personal computers run Windows operating systems.

Richards testified that when consumers try to create music CDs or play digital music, Windows XP tends to use its own media player even if the user selected the RealNetworks product as the default player.

Richards said the Windows XP music search function is another Microsoft ploy to discourage the use of competing products. The search option finds music files using Microsoft's format easily, but will find only obsolete versions of RealNetworks' format.

Nine states have asked a court to force Microsoft to release a modular version of its Windows operating system in which some features, like the Web browser and media player, could be removed and replaced with competitors' products.

Other penalties sought by the states would require Microsoft to license its Office business software for use on competing operating systems and distribute

the blueprints of its Internet Explorer browser for no charge.

The federal government and nine other states settled their antitrust case against Microsoft last year for lesser penalties.

The original judge in the antitrust case, Thomas Penfield Jackson, ordered Microsoft broken into two companies after concluding that it illegally stifled competitors. An appeals court upheld many of the violations but reversed the breakup order and appointed U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to determine a new punishment.

A computer science professor defending Microsoft said Thursday it would be possible to create a modular Windows, although he didn't think it was a good idea.

Stuart Madnick of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Microsoft could replicate necessary portions of the operating system before taking out a feature like the Web browser. But he guessed that the change could make Windows "100 to 1,000 times more bloated."

"You can do it, but it doesn't make much sense," Madnick said.

Madnick also said that he wasn't sure whether Microsoft could use a clause in the federal settlement, designed to protect Microsoft's security products, to keep from disclosing details about its media player.

A lawyer for the states, Kevin Hodges, suggested that it would be in Microsoft's discretion.

"I believe Microsoft would initially make the determination," Madnick said, "but then it would be subject to review."

States that rejected the government's settlement with Microsoft last fall and are pressing for tougher penalties are Iowa, Utah, Massachusetts, Connecticut, California, Kansas, Florida, Minnesota and West Virginia, along with the District of Columbia.

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