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*Martin*
06-Jan-07, 21:21
Internet explorer is currently running with add-ons disabled is in a message bar at the top of the screen. It's been like this since I installed the newest internet explorer with my windows update. Anytime I open IE it is there

Any help appreciated

*Martin*
06-Jan-07, 22:32
never mind got it fixed

fred
06-Jan-07, 22:42
Internet explorer is currently running with add-ons disabled is in a message bar at the top of the screen. It's been like this since I installed the newest internet explorer with my windows update. Anytime I open IE it is there

Any help appreciated

Might have something to do with the court case. Somebody had the patent on <EMBED> and <OBJECT> tags and wanted Microsoft to pay them. Microsoft refused and instead made it so if you want to play embedded content in IE you have to click on it. That's in all updates since last April. This
doesn't apply to Firefox which is open source and excused from royalties.

On my web pages I now load pages with embedded content with Javascript so IE users don't notice any difference. A lot of hassle because the richest man in the world is mean, it was only a few million, he makes that in one day before breakfast.

blueivy
06-Jan-07, 23:29
On my web pages I now load pages with embedded content with Javascript so IE users don't notice any difference. A lot of hassle because the richest man in the world is mean, it was only a few million, he makes that in one day before breakfast.

I don't know if it's because he's mean, I think it's more or the precedent it sets. BT decided to say they had the patent on hyperlinks ... fortunately that didn't work out for them. It's all about who can twist the patents they had from 30 years ago to say they 'own' the internet.

fred
06-Jan-07, 23:47
I don't know if it's because he's mean, I think it's more or the precedent it sets. BT decided to say they had the patent on hyperlinks ... fortunately that didn't work out for them. It's all about who can twist the patents they had from 30 years ago to say they 'own' the internet.

I don't think it's about them owning the internet, they did make the open source browsers exempt from royalties. More about Gates not owning the internet, he has made a huge fortune from pinching other peoples ideas and work.

blueivy
07-Jan-07, 14:35
I don't think it's about them owning the internet, they did make the open source browsers exempt from royalties. More about Gates not owning the internet, he has made a huge fortune from pinching other peoples ideas and work.

They probably made open source browsers exempt for political reasons, not to be nice. What would people think about them if they suddenly started hitting Mozilla and others with patent rights and law suits asking for money from organisations whose whole ethos is not really to make money but to advance the internet.

The company who decided to exercise their patent rights were after money and control - straightforward. If they were purely wanting to exercise their rights within the law they'd have made it a level playing field. Internet Explorer, while shipped with Windows, is available free for download. It it now only available on the Windows platform but was also available on the Mac. Why would they therefore exclude one 'free' browser (ie. Mozilla) and include the other 'free' browser (ie. IE)? Because Microsoft has a shed load of cash and they 'control' the share of the browser market. They wanted some of that money and control. It wasn't about anything else.

That to me is a little unfair.

What they have ended up doing is making it harder for people who build webpages. Plain and simple.

With regards to Microsoft stealing ideas, I would agree with some of it. Certinaly in the early days there was a lot of it as I suppose they were less in the spotlight (the international media weren't really focusing on geeky computer software companies). The more and more I read today I can see Microsoft buys these companies and takes their ideas rather than stealing them outright. You can't say that's unfair?

They have nicked stuff in the past as has a number of others - all companies do this. The Wellington Boot Company (sounds a little off the topic, but my daughter was watching something about them earlier on CBeebies!) are a brand name and made the first waterproof rubber boots, but every Tom, Dick and Harry company has nicked the idea and makes their own 'Wellies'.

Microsoft are not whiter than white, but they really are no worse than IBM, Oracle, HP, Dell or any other huge company. They do what they have to do to survive and if they get caught they throw their massive financial muscle and 40 odd lawyers at it.

Anyway, this has gone just a tad off-topic so I'll say no more ...!