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Patent Ruling Will Cripple Flash
IE, Flash, and patents: here comes trouble: Zeldman highlights a big problem with this Eolas patent ruling. Technically, rich media is now no longer allow to play automatically in the browser window. This means that Flash movies cannot start without user intervention.
“Besides paying over half a billion dollars to the patent holder, Microsoft is supposed to cripple its market-leading browser so that IE/Windows will no longer seamlessly play Flash, Quicktime, RealVideo, or Adobe Acrobat files, Java applets, and other rich media formats. Once the company does this, any site that uses these technologies will no longer work in the browser most people use.”
This is serious: the workaround Microsoft is proposing is to insert a dialog box that pops up and asks the user, “Would you like me to start this Flash movie?” They are in that much of a bind here.
Jakob Nielsen is laughing his butt off right now.
What Links Here
Eolas Ruling Reversed
Patent central to Microsoft case invalidated: And in a complete reversal... The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has invalidated a claim to Web browser technology central to a case against Microsoft, a move that could spare the software giant from paying more than half a billion dollars in damages... This puts off…
Eolas-mandated IE Update is Out
Information for Developers about Changes to Internet Explorer: The Eolas patent decision has spawned the dreaded IE update. Changes will need to be made, especially if your sites use Flash. "Developers who build ActiveX controls, Web developers who use ActiveX and Java Applets on their Web sites, and developers who…
What This Links To
Microsoft Loses to the Tune of a Half-Billion
Microsoft loses $521 million verdict over browser patent "A federal jury in Chicago awarded the University of California and a browser technology company $521 million after finding that their patents were infringed by Microsoft Corp."
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