Media player row: Will the EU read between the lines?
Published: 07 Jan 2004 12:45 GMT
Whereas I devoted a significant amount of research and analysis to the US government's antitrust proceedings against Microsoft, I've treated the European Union's deliberations over the same as little more than a footnote to the whole Microsoft monopoly saga. But, in light of Microsoft's highly unsubstantiated argument to the EU for a less burdensome settlement reported by Reuters, I felt as though that footnote is now worthy of promotion and investigation.
While Microsoft's antitrust dust is settling in the United States, EU regulators are still in a pre-settlement phase, trying to determine what remedies, if any, to Microsoft's alleged monopolistic practices should be ordered.
One remedy under consideration is a requirement that Microsoft remove the Windows Media Player (WMP) from the versions of Windows that are distributed within the European Union's jurisdiction. Many government regulators and Microsoft's competitors believe that when the dominant desktop operating (Windows) ships with other Microsoft applications such as WMP, the competition to those applications (such as RealNetworks RealPlayer) is unfairly stifled. RealNetworks apparently sees it that way. Last month, claiming that Microsoft's predatory practices resulted in substantial loss of revenue, the company slapped Microsoft with a $1bn lawsuit.
The media player issue is equally important and strikingly similar to two other issues -- those regarding Internet Explorer and Java -- which were central to the antitrust proceedings against Microsoft because of the key role that developers play in establishing market preferences.
In the case of media players, the EU is intensely interested in the assumption that when a default media playing technology, such as WMP, exists in Windows, end users will establish a preference for that media player. As a result, content developers respond to that preference by publishing content in that player's format before publishing it in other formats, if at all. The thinking is that content developer resources are best spent on the biggest target before considering others. Whereas most players support common media formats such as MP3 and MPEG for playing music or video, they are incompatible when it comes to customising the presentation of streaming media, and in particular, making the content interactive (something rich content publishers like to do).
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