Microsoft Denies RealNetworks' Allegations of Media Player Monopoly

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 23, 2004 - 8:09am.

San Francisco -- In a court filing submitted on Friday, Microsoft denied allegations raised by rival RealNetworks in a $1 billion antitrust suit that the company has used its monopoly over PC operating systems to discriminate against RealNetworks' media player in favor of its own Windows Media Player. The "more than 300 million unique users of RealPlayer that RealNetworks claims to have undermine any allegation of distribution foreclosure," Microsoft wrote in its filing, arguing that there is healthy competition in the digital media player market. Microsoft also points out in the filing that it has included the ability for users of its operating systems since the release of Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP to manually remove all visible means of access to Windows Media Player, and make another media player the default choice for all media types. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 1.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/040221/microsoft_realnetworks_13.html
http://news.com.com/2100-1032-5162785.html
http://www.realnetworks.com