IE6 ActiveX changes today
What a long, boring, and annoying trip it's been. For those who don't
remember, way back in 1999 a little Chicago company called Eolas sued
Microsoft for infringing on their patents regarding embedded content in a browser. Whoopdidoo, right? Microsoft,
however, could not crush the little company. So, sparing the gory details reversals and counter-reversals, MS is now required to make changes to IE
that will handle stuff like QuickTime, Real media, Flash, Java— you know, the kinds of things you use every
flippin' day. MS still has to pony up some $560 million now, and it looks like the changes, starting today from a place
in the MS Download Center, will gradually appease the "David"s from Eolas (as opposed to the Goliaths at MS).
Unfortunately, this is a situation where the consumer may lose. If changes disrupt the browsing experience, it will
make it difficult for web developers to do business as usual. In fact, this update will mean users have to click one
more time to initiate ActiveX controls. Luckily, MS has a handy page on
MSDN for developers, and how they can work around this in their pages. Either way, I'm still strongly against our
current software patent system. While Microsoft should have paid something, I don't think that every web surfer or web
developer should be punished, years later, for something so basic to the browsing experience.
[Via BetaNews]
