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RealNetworks to Microsoft: It's not Real's bug!
| July 28, 1998 Web posted at: 11:35 AM EDT by Alex Lash |
From...
|
(IDG)
-- RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser last week rebutted Microsoft's claim that
problems between the two companies' streaming media software were caused
by Real's software.
"We've done a careful review of this, and we believe Microsoft is incorrect," Glaser said during a press conference.
The contretemps began when Glaser, a former Microsoft vice president who left in 1993 to start his own company, told Senator Orrin Hatch's committee yesterday that the new Windows media player deliberately "breaks" Real's software. Microsoft countered with a white paper documenting a bug in Real's new G2 audio and video player, which is still in beta.
"It is unfortunate that Mr. Glaser chose to discredit Microsoft in a public forum, asking for government intervention, instead of working towards building a better product for his customers," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in a statement.
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The companies' relationship is tangled. Microsoft owns 10 percent of RealNetworks, in a deal struck last July that also involved sharing of technology. Microsoft ships a competing product, NetShow, with every new copy of Windows. There has been much speculation that Glaser's comments to the Senate were maneuvers toward a new licensing deal for his product.
"We do a lot of business with Microsoft, we talk to them all the time, we do advance disclosures and all that, but there's no specific contract negotiation right now," Glaser said.
Glaser also brought friends. Executives from Netscape, Xing Technologies and Digital Bitcasting seconded Glaser's assertions that Windows software disables competing products.
Ken Wasch of the Software Publishers Association, a group that counts Microsoft among its members, said during the conference that the issue is broader than streaming media: "The entire software industry is dependent on a relationship with Microsoft. Competition with them creates a difficult relationship."