Microsoft Internet Explorer changes premature, say critics

IDG News Service - Microsoft Corp. may be unnecessarily forcing developers to rewrite large portions of the Web, say members of the Web development community who fear that the software maker's plans to bring its Internet Explorer browser into compliance with a recent software patent ruling against the company are premature.
The changes, announced on Monday, were created in response to a $521 million software patent verdict against Microsoft, won in August by Eolas Technologies Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
A new version of Internet Explorer, expected to be released early next year, will handle dynamic content like RealOne, Macromedia Flash or Apple QuickTime files in a new way designed to "ameliorate or eliminate the impact of the ruling," according to a Microsoft statement.
Microsoft also issued instructions to Web developers on Monday, advising them to make changes to Web pages that contain this kind of dynamic content or risk presenting their users with dialog boxes. "If Web developers have not updated their Web pages using the techniques suggested by Microsoft and others, users may see a simple dialog box before the browser loads the ActiveX control," the statement said.
"They will have to make changes to those few Web pages that have ActiveX controls or Java applets on them to avoid dialog boxes on those pages," explained Michael Wallent, the general manager of Microsoft's Windows client platform group.
Wallent said he believes that the majority of pages in question are now being used to deliver advertising and that the advertising community will be quick to make the necessary changes.
He downplayed the potential effects of the changes, predicting that the "vast majority" of affected Web sites would be switched over before the new version of Internet Explorer became available. "If you exclude Web advertising, you're not looking at a huge number of sites," Wallent added.
But others argued that it's unreasonable to ask the Web community to retag every example of dynamic content on the Internet before the Eolas verdict has been appealed.
"I think they should at least be waiting until the courts rule," said Rich Green, the vice president of developer platforms at Sun Microsystems Inc. "It seems premature to be rolling out change in a case where the final answer has not been reached."
Making the changes wouldn't be a huge technical challenge for Atomic Mail LLC, which offers a Web-based e-mail application that uses Flash animation, said Art Krumsee, the Columbus, Ohio-based company's chief technical officer. But that's because the Atomic Mail