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Eolas vs. Microsoft: How Does This Affect You?

In August, a federal court ruled that Microsoft had infringed on a patent related to plug-in technology used in Internet Explorer owned by the University of California and licensed to Eolas Technologies Inc. "Plug-ins" include objects like Flash movies and Java Applets, as well as any other components that use the EMBED, APPLET, or OBJECT HTML tags. If your web site has a Flash or Swish animation, you'll want to read on.

As Microsoft is appealing this decision, they have also begun working on changes to Windows and Internet Explorer to try to side-step the patent issue. The new Internet Explorer, recently released for testing, will prompt users to click "OK" in order to load any plug-ins on that page. (You can imagine how this can get annoying for users!)

Microsoft also detailed some ways for web site builders to get around this prompt, which other companies like Macromedia and Apple have fleshed out into more practical details. There is also a free add-in from Office Power! for FrontPage that will help check your web sites for ActiveX content, although it doesn't actually fix the problems. (See Links and Resources below.) We expect that these companies or others will eventually create utilities or add-ins to help you fix your web site.

The new Internet Explorer is slated for distribution sometime in early 2004. With the flurry of appeals and motions still going on between Microsoft and Eolas, it's probably not necessary to update your web site immediately, although you may want to look into the techniques described on Macromedia's site or the other links below and try them out.

There's sure to be many more updates, so we'll try to post any more developments in later articles of the PixelMill newsletter!

Links and Resources

• Microsoft tweaks Explorer to address ruling (news.com)
• Microsoft's IE Update site
  • Microsoft's page specifically on ActiveX Controls
• How-to links (basically all the same strategies)
  • More how-tos from Apple's site for embedding QuickTime movies
  • Macromedia's how-tos for embedding Flash movies
  • RealNetwork's how-tos for embedding RealMedia
• Free add-in: Active Content Reporter for FrontPage - This add-in REPORTS ActiveX components in web sites (if you didn't already know where your Flash movie code is). Unfortunately you still have to figure out yourself how to modify the code with the above workarounds.