I find it distasteful to see <BIG COMPANY> using such a big hammer against a little guy who just posted a link. "Real" IS an English word, after all - their protections are therefore more limited. "Real Alternative" seems rather descriptive, and not at all confusing to consumers (as well as having a clever double meaning).
On a related note, I consider the early Real Player software to be malware, due to it's Trojan installation of other software and aggressive attempts to prevent removal. I've lost all trust in Real Networks - one of the reasons they've spun off their music service as a separate entity, I imagine.
The market certainly punished them for this. But were they ever taken to court over these practices (and violation of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act)?
I worked for Real (Progressive Networks originally, the name changed while I was there) way back in '96. The REALLY early players, RealAudio up through 3.0 and the first versions of RealVideo didn't install any of that crap. They didn't install anything but the player (including a browser plugin, but that was just a version of the player too). The malware didn't start until a year or two later, after I'd left, but it always made me sad the direction they went. When I was there, it felt like we were doing good things for the world. At least the part of the world that wanted to stream tiny blurry videos over 28.8k modems.
This is pretty awful too. I don't really know what reason Real has for existing any more. Rhapsody seemed like the only sort of worthwhile thing they had, but I just learned yesterday they spun that off last year. Weird.
Thanks for the insight. I think most people want to do the "right" thing. The competition to be "THE" way people play media was very intense between Real, Microsoft, and Apple. There was a lot of trickery on all sides uninstalling other people's players, making them not the default, etc.
Too bad this all devolved so terribly and not in the direction of the best experience for users.
I find it distasteful to see <BIG COMPANY> using such a big hammer against a little guy who just posted a link. "Real" IS an English word, after all - their protections are therefore more limited. "Real Alternative" seems rather descriptive, and not at all confusing to consumers (as well as having a clever double meaning).
On a related note, I consider the early Real Player software to be malware, due to it's Trojan installation of other software and aggressive attempts to prevent removal. I've lost all trust in Real Networks - one of the reasons they've spun off their music service as a separate entity, I imagine.
The market certainly punished them for this. But were they ever taken to court over these practices (and violation of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act)?