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NY Times: "Will Poole, vice president of Microsoft's digital media division and one of the company's negotiators, said that AOL threatened to sue Microsoft on antitrust grounds in the absence of an agreement. 'In the end, AOL asked much, offered little and told us they wanted to sue us over XP,' he said. 'AOL didn't propose a win-win deal. They proposed an I- win-now-you-lose-later deal.'" Victor Stone: "While the Web content providers all laser-beam their energies to killing, or crippling or 'opening-up' a single, (sucky, buggy) feature in the next Microsoft browser they find threatening to their way of life (and celebrate the 'victories' along the way) the actual way the Internet works (or doesn't work) is being hammered out behind doors shut so tight it makes a WTO influence peddling meeting look like a Woodstock revival." I talked with Victor on the phone this evening. He's a recent Microsoft departee. I explained that keeping the lines clear between content and the wars companies like AOL and Microsoft fight is essential. They're going to fight their wars no matter what. But I want to keep a clean space for writers to do whatever they want with this medium. I'm not so stupid as to believe that Smart Tags is the end of the road. The Microsoft people have used precedent a lot in their arguments. So it's reasonable to assume that Smart Tags would just be another precedent a year or two from now when they start selling the inside of the browser window the same way they sell the desktop and Start menu. It's fair to think that that stuff belongs to them. But the content of my web page and yours does not belong to Microsoft or AOL. It's not theirs to sell. And you gotta know it's going to be even worse. In two years we're going to be arguing with Microsoft about whether we need our own computers to store our content. And whether we need to use their software or if it's OK to use our own. Victor's response may make it seem as if we're not aware of what the road ahead looks like from Microsoft's point of view. I listen carefully and read tea leaves and study history. Their road and my road may not be the same. They may have things in common, but they took a turn somewhere. Just wait until the full XP picture emerges. They'll be fighting in court for years. Their users are going to hate them like they hate the record companies. While that's going on the Web will still be an open platform and it's going to stay that way. News.Com: "Get ready because it's going to be a big fight and its going to last around 10 years," Barry said. Michael Fraase explains why Smart Tags may not be legal outside the US. Joel Spolsky: "I've been playing with MP3pro, a new file format that is exactly half the size of MP3s, with higher sound quality." Speaking of higher sound quality..
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