Microsoft has faced many legal problems the past few years, and most of the time, the problems they face and many times, judgements that were against Microsoft have been cheered and hailed by the world.
However, their case against a lil known company called Eolas which claimed the software giant had stolen browser technology relating to plug-ins, and the eventual ruling against Microsoft which will cost them $521 million, has sent not cheers but rather worrying ripples amongst many, especially web developers.
Eolas “filed suit against Microsoft in 1999, alleging that the Redmond, Wash., giant infringed on one of its patents when enabling Internet Explorer to use plug-ins and applets in the software.”
This meant that certain web technologies, like Flash which is so popular, will not be able to displayed itself embedded within a site. This, for example, would result in major redesigns for many websites which has develop their whole site with Flash.
Although this case was brought against Microsoft IE, it is not sure what it meant for other browsers in the industry as embedded technologies has became a standard feature in almost all modern browser.
The impact of this ruling as spelt out clearly in Jeffrey Zeldman’s site, will hurt web users, site owners and designers, and software companies (possibly ruining some of those companies) and will chill web development in untold ways.
Worrying times for web development.
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