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Microsoft Agrees to Stop Hijacking Music-Shopping
ScottSpeaks! writes "CNN , ABC, and others are reporting that Microsoft has agreed to fix Windows XP so that it no longer launches IE (instead of the user's chosen default browser) when the user selects the "Shop for Music Online" option in Windows XP. MS isn't admitting that it's a violation of the consent decree they signed to get the DoJ to drop the anti-trust suit against them, but threats to take them to court over it are what prompted the move."
Microsoft has agreed to fix Windows XP so that it no longer launches IE (instead of the user's chosen default browser) when the user selects the "Shop for Music Online" option in Windows XP
Pops up Mozilla... "This site requires IE 6.0 to be viewed".
C'mon, it's not that difficult...
how long until
[from the CNN article:]
[from the ABC article:] Microsoft has agreed to make changes in its Windows XP operating system to satisfy US government concerns [...] "Without necessarily agreeing with the Department's position, Microsoft has agreed to remove the override of the user's default browser..
Why is it that whenever these crooks are forced to follow the rules of any legal settlement it's spun in such a way as to appear like they're doing the consumer a favour? "offer [the patch] for download" and "Microsoft has agreed"?!
[sarcasm]Thank you so very much, Bill.[/sarcasm]
Trolling is a art,
Since when is it Microsoft's policy to implement changes without an actual lawsuit? Granted this is probably nothing more than a registry change, but does this signal a new non-court driven Microsoft? I tend to think not. In this case, they probably calculated that it would be cheaper to change the link than to spend years in court feeding their legal team.
today is spelling optional day.
Some recent versions of MSN messenger used to do this as well. The latest version I've downloaded uses my default browser.
[alk]
MS isn't admitting that it's a violation of the consent decree they signed to get the DoJ to drop the anti-trust suit against them, but threats to take them to court over it are what prompted the move."
........without turning this whole thing into an anti-Microsoft rant, (I fear this will happen) we hear this kind of thing again and again from Microsoft. Microsoft violates (again) the terms of the anti-trust trial and says "ooops, my mistake." and agrees to change its behavior (barely). How do they keep getting away with it? I don't really have an answer for it but, they appear to have a somewhat schizophrenic relationship with their potential markets.
:-)
So,
The issue here is manifold: 1) Microsoft is a monopoly (not necessarily bad), 2) Microsoft leverages that monopoly against other markets (bad). The problem is that they really can't help themselves because their shareholders (disclaimer: I own some Microsoft stock) demand greater returns on their investment and they really don't know how to do anything differently. Microsoft is maturing and recently has paid out dividends (about time), but they seem to be continuously stumbling over their own feet in various markets. Microsoft has some smart folks there (including a few friends of mine), but as a whole the company has the appearance of a bunch of malicious geeks who are smart, but are not very creative, resulting in a desperate desire to be cool and seen as cool. This could be a result of marketing management keeping the programmers etc... under control, but Microsoft as a whole lacks that essence of coolness that gives them an edge. Therefore the predatory nature of the monopoly as they gobble up every concept that could be seen as giving Microsoft some degree of edge. It also might be that they are so big, they really don't have the ability to move very quickly or be objective in their analysis of markets. I would bet that if they broke themselves into a number of different companies (that even had the possibility of competing with each other), they would be much more competitive and would prove a much better return on investment.
Come on Bill, how would you like to be the principal of five or six big companies? One company can only get you so far you know.....?
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
If I receive a non-HTML/RTF formatted e-mail that contains a URL, Outlook will convert it to a link and when clicked it launches IE rather than my preferred browser.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
So the user can install a different browser on their own but have to rely on the "shop for music online" button? I don't know where this "feature" is, but is this something that redirects people to one of Microsoft's sites that's designed to work with IE? If so, I'd hijack the link as well.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
... I was about to suggest MS would use 'we did not do this intentionally, our code is just of poor quality', but I guess their 'Trusted Computing' initiative kinds of shoots the argument down :)
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
Maybe I'm being dense, but what's the big deal with Microsoft launching their browser for their music shopping service? If they'd used a browser control on their own app, would anyone have complained? It's not like there aren't 1000 other places online to buy music.
Really, perhaps the issue should be the existance of a "buy music online" selection in XP at all. I hate all those pre-loaded ads that come disguised as usability enhancements.
Annoys the hell out of me.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
I use XP Pro at home (Your condolences are not necessary) Mozilla Firebird is my default browser. I despise IE. The only time I see IE launch is when I do windows update. I wonder if there's any way microsoft could be convinced to program Windows update in a way that it could be accessed by other (standards compliant) browsers.
Conserve Oil, Recycle, Boycott Walmart
Is software at the point in it's evolution that any major changes only happen when there is a lawsuit involved? This is not only a microsoft phenomenon but I am starting to see it in all new software. WHEN DID THE DAMN LAWYERS START DICTATING WHAT THE SOFTWARE SHOULD DO ???? If GNU was not around to prove that software does not have to be created by committee this world would be a lot worse place than it is now. IMHO the open source community is becoming more than just about software and more about what is wrong with society as a whole.
Stay tuned for new sig...
I think the only real surprise to me here is that someone bothered to call MS on the rule-breaking.
That's good to see.
I wonder how many people will bother to download the patch though; I doubt many people keep up to date on that sort of thing. Sneaky on the part of MS, really. By the time someone noticed that they were breaking the rules, it was too late for the vast majority of Windows users.
As I understand it, the purchase music stuff is a button in Windows Media Player. If you use Windows Media Player to purchase music, don't you expect that it will send you to whomever Microsoft wants you to purchase music from?
Seriously, this complaint is equivalent to asking Apple to send you to Napster when you shop for music with iTunes. It's utterly stupid, and the only reason Microsoft has to worry about it is that they are very unpopular with some government agencies right now.
In another suprising turn of events, terrorists have also agreed to stop hijacking airplanes.
it's a bit odd that they have a specific button in XP that says *Shop Online for Music*?
Granted they've now allowed folks to browse their music retailing partners web site in a different browser.
But I wonder what business deal has been done with the music retailer(s) so they can have a ready made market of Windows XP users sent direct to their door(s).
Worst
Considering...
"Windows is about choice, you can mix and match all of this stuff," David Fester, general manager of Microsoft's Windows digital media division, told the New York Times. "We believe you should have the same choice when it comes to music services."
What version of Outlook are you using? Mine fires up Moz Firebird no problems, here's a link on how to do it.
I am NaN
I dont see this happening in Windows XP. It launches my mozilla.
I could change the world, but GOD won't give me the source code
I'm assuming they don't use that default browser launcher api call and instead hardcode a call to IE.
[alk]
This is different how?
Apple is not a convicted monopolist.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
The funny thing is that is not the only MS software that forces IE on you. There are others (especially in VS .NET).
And while I'm on the topic of IE being foisted upon me...
The only Web site that I have problems browsing is microsoft.com. Well, that and MSNBC.com. So much relies on IE. Why are MS coders in such a manic rush to make themselves look so stupid? "Uh, we only know how to write code for IE." I can view multimedia content at every news site except MSNBC, which requires IE and related crap.
OK. Yes. I know why they do it. But, my god. Pick some other way to annoy people in to using your products. That, or actually release a browser that is as good as Firebird. Firebird is in freaking Alpha and it's better than a 10 year old IE. Innovation my ass.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
If you point IE for Mac (or Opera, OmniWeb, Safari, whatever) to Napster with the intent to purchase music, the Mac OS doesn't launch iTunes and stuff you back to the iTMS.
It's about leaving the decision up to the user. It's about not using the OS to redirect choice.
"The more corrupt the state, the more it legislates." - Tacitus
Actually, in a sense I am being forced to. You see, the software I use is only available under Windows (a lot of CAD software and what not). Microsoft's monopoly position has driven the market into a situation where software vendors much support Windows in order to get users and users must use Wnidows in order to get software. Now, all of -my company's- software is written cross platform with wxWindows because it is a no-brainer -- MFC? wxWindows?
But the simple fact is, if I want to make a living, I have to use and support Windows. You could argue that well, just have an unsuccessful business and live poor. You'd be right. I could just live poor.
Dump their DMA riddles..
i8237: Before I'll transfer data for thee, answer me these riddles three.
i8237: What is the bus cycle time of an i8080 in minimum mode?
User: What? I don't know that! Just transfer my damn data!
Do the RIAA and MPAA understand that MS wants to become the middle-man? Whoever controls the keys to DRM would effectively be the funnel through which all protected content must flow. Witness XBox and other consoles business models. I suspect these two organizations are aware of this, but haven't got the technical ability to produce an alternative. At least they're running with Apple on the music side - probably find them less threatening than MS. I suppose this is slightly off-topic :-)
First of all I don't like MS's approach to software development (particularly the activation garbage you have to go through now) but I don't see that anyone has a right to force MS to stop using IE (yeah they technically weren't forced but the lawsuit threat initiated their response). Take Apple for example - practically everthing on a Mac is proprietary Apple software and you don't see the Mac people going ballistic over it. Forcing MS to make changes to their OS for anything other than privacy violations/blatant security holes isn't right. To illustrate the absurdity of the DOJ policy consider this: I do some scientific programming myself and I usually use the excel plugins for C to generate tables/graphs - if MS is forced to change their OS why shouldn't someone be able to force me to write a program in such away as to force me to generate charts using openoffice/staroffice or even Corel's wordperfect suite? If people don't like MS's software change to linux/freeBSD/MacOS where you can do whatever you want - it just isn't equitable to MS to force them to change stuff in their OS just because a group of people dislike IE (for gosh sakes if you didn't like MS why would you spend the $100+ to use their software?).
Or at least which browser you claim to use.
Just add this to your user.js file (create the file in the same dir as prefs.js if it doesn't exist yet):
user_pref("general.useragent.override", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)");
That'll fake it so the site thinks you're using IE 6 on an XP box. Usually, unless the site has something really extraordinary on it, it'll work reasonably okay anyway.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
The deal with forcing them to allow OEMs to install software that they believe users want (like Moz with popup killing before the recent SP) is because they were using that market share to squeeze out competition - this is called 'ABUSE OF A MONOPOLY' and so they lost the case.
If you want to stop a monopoly abuser, you simply can't do it by persuading people to shop elsewhere: that's why there are laws for this.
You're just naive and I'm tired of hearing this shit.
Justin.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
I used to look at this sort of thing and be glad MS was changing or doing something right for a change. But lately I can't help but but enjoy when Microsoft screws people. The reason is that there are so many people I know of who claim MS sucks and whatnot. Yet these same people are unwilling to try the alternatives. I hope there are more worms that attack windows. I hope people have to call Microsoft and wait on hold for 2 hours to activate a product they purchased legally. I'm glad MS removed support for win 98. The only way to get through to people is to hit them. So rather than try to stop MS from doing it I'll stand in the corner and laugh. I guess I'm beginning to believe that legal intervention won't change things. The only way for things to change is to let people get screwed by MS enough times (30-40 roughly) then they may begin to start to see some of the problems so many /.ers have with MS.
Then they'll either try a new OS or they'll keep bitching and just keep on taking it. (In my experience people tend to do the later)
People will get what they deserve.....maybe that's a bad way to look at it but oh well....I'm tired of waiting on hold to explain why I have to reinstall my wintendo again.
..I'd like Microsoft to have to admit to wrongdoing when they stop doing something wrong.
This "We didn't do it, and we promise to never do it again" shit is getting old.
~Philly
If you do this, *please* make sure to e-mail the maintainers of the website. Tell them you use Mozilla, and what you had to do -- and whether or not their site actually *does* work with standards.
Otherwise, the fake user agent string just continues to tell them "everyone uses IE anyway, so we're doing the right thing by ignoring those losers".
It's not the fact that they're a monopoly - it's a remedy for them previously ABUSING their monopoly position. Apple doesn't have a monopoly position to abuse.
It's like ruling that a burglar is not allowed to carry a crowbar in the street and the burglar's riposte being "I should be allowed to carry whatever I want". Well, ordinarily you can, but you broke the law and this is the remedy to prevent you doing it again.
People are making a big deal over THIS!?!?!?!?! If you are so stupid that the only way to find music for sale online is by following this link then you need to be banned for computers. I had to hunt high and low before I found this very obscure link. If you are so fucking upset that your preferred browser doesnt load this stupid link, you need to step away from the computer and get a life. Is this the best FUD you can come up with against Microsoft these days? this isn't a flame....this is the motherfucking truth.