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Microsoft YouTube App Strips Ads; Adds Download
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft appears to be sticking a finger in Google's eye with the launch of its new YouTube app for Windows Phone. The app, ReadWrite has confirmed, strips out YouTube ads when it plays back videos and allows users to easily download video by way of a prominent 'download' button."
Right. The two largest software companies are going to act like a couple of petulant small time administrators have a dick measuring contest. Sure.
You don't think that there was a bit of collaboration in creating it, maybe?
I don't respond to AC's.
it seems like MS is shooting themselves in the foot yet again.
They did that long ago when they refused to participate in other software ecosystems, and concentrated on locking competitors out by locking customers in.
Now their locked-in market is failing, and the world is bypassing their restrictions. They don't have time to develop good, competitive software, all they can do is assault competitors with any tools they have at hand.
It's an ugly, desperate thing we're seeing here.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I've been watching YouTube videos forever as an unregistered visitor and never seen a TOS.
So you're suggesting, based on your experiences, that the Microsoft Phone development team and their legal advisers can ignore any TOS that they choose not to read?
Fascinating...
A contract does not apply unless you agree to it. There is a lot of debate in the legal community whether TOS are valid at all, and the answer seems to be "it depends". I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know whether in this particular case the TOS applies but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't.
Microsoft's developers are not agreeing to any TOS. Even if they did agree to it they are not on the board of directors and they are not in the legal department, so they're not authorised to agree on behalf of the corporation anyway.
With no TOS in place, that leaves the DMCA... but google doesn't use any DRM to force ads ads to appear or prevent downloads so I don't think there is any DMCA violation either.
If google adds some DRM though, even if it's weak DRM, microsoft would be in deep shit if they bypass it.
The drop in market share is largely due to the explosive growth in the entry level market. In the high end market apple is still king. The only thing all these financial analysts that are crying for apple to release a low-end device really care about is the next quarterly report. Apple has built a name as a premium brand and jeopardizing that image for a quick profit would only benefit the wall street players at the expense of apple's long term future.