Error Forum Blog

After internal complaints that its hardware and software partners weren’t doing an adequate job competing with Apple’s iTunes and iPod in the digital music market, Microsoft released its Zune player and software. But Zune wasn’t a foregone conclusion, according to an internal Microsoft emails that recently came to light. Instead, Microsoft also considered a partnership with rival Apple.

This development came to light when evidence was introduced at Microsoft’s class action antitrust trial in Des Moines, Iowa. Many had long understood that Microsoft was unhappy with its partners, a fact driven home in a 2003 email message named “sucking on media players” sent by then-Microsoft president Jim Allchin. He was unhappy with the quality of MP3 players from companies such as Creative and Dell.

“My goodness it’s terrible,” Allchin wrote a particular Creative model. “What I don’t understand though is I was told the new Creative Labs device would be comparable to Apple. That is so not the case.” Amir Majidimehr, currently a Microsoft corporate vice president who oversees the company’s Consumer Media Technology group, replied “Now you feel our pain.’

Majidimehr told Allchin that the company was providing cash prizes to its hardware partners in an effort to get them to improve the designs of its devices. Additionally, Microsoft later helped hardware developers co-design devices. For example, the iRiver clix players were largely designed at Microsoft and even include a font from Windows Vista. Majidimehr told Allchin that if its efforts didn’t pay off, Microsoft might need to “do our own hardware.”

Allchin suggested that he could talk to Apple CEO Steve Jobs about making the iPod compatible with Windows Media player. He feared that the iPod’s success could “drive people away” from WMP. Microsoft, of course, is doing just that now with the Zune.

A diverse group of companies, academics, investors, technology leaders and human rights organizations announced today its intention to seek solutions to the free expression and privacy challenges faced by technology and communications companies doing business internationally.

The process – which aims to produce a set of principles guiding company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights – marks a new phase in efforts that these groups began in 2006.

Last year, Google, Microsoft, Vodafone and Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO), with the facilitation of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) and advice from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, initiated a series of dialogues to gain a fuller understanding of free expression and privacy as they relate to the use of technology worldwide.

At the same time, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) was also convening technology leaders, investors and human rights advocates to discuss how to advance civil liberties on the Internet in the face of laws that run contrary to international standards for human rights.

Both processes benefited from dialogue, research and policy expertise on internet filtering and surveillance practices from the OpenNet Consensus, a coalition of academic institutions including the University of California Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and School of Law-Boalt Hall, the Berkman Center and others.

The new combined group, in addition to developing the principles, seeks to advance their effectiveness by establishing a framework to implement the principles, hold signatories accountable and provide for ongoing learning.

“Technology companies have played a vital role building the economy and providing tools important for democratic reform in developing countries. But some governments have found ways to turn technology against their citizens — monitoring legitimate online activities and censoring democratic material,” CDT Executive Director Leslie Harris said. “It is vital that we identify solutions that preserve the enormous democratic value provided by technological development, while at the same time protecting the human rights and civil liberties of those who stand to benefit from that expansion.”

BSR CEO Aron Cramer said that the discussions over the past year have already proven valuable.

“Thanks to the extraordinary commitment of the companies and other participants in this process we’ve already learned a great deal about the obstacles we face and the ways business and other stakeholders can join forces to address those challenges,” Cramer said. “This important dialogue reflects a shared commitment to maximize the information available via the internet on the basis of global principles protecting free expression and privacy. This dialogue could prove a key step in unlocking the communications potential of the internet.â€?

Members of the group plan to complete the process in 2007.

The Xbox Live Arcade file size was capped at 50 MB to accommodate consumers who purchased the hard drive-less Xbox 360 Core SKU (those consumers had to use one of Microsoft’s memory cards). Under condition of anonymity, sources revealed to 1UP that the file size for Xbox Live Arcade titles has been increased from 50 MB to 250 MB and with Microsoft’s approval, that size can be expanded to 450 MB. When asked for comment on the reported change to file size, Microsoft said, “We do not comment on rumor and speculation and so we can not confirm that rumor. Aside from the exception we granted for ‘Castlevania: Symphony of the Night,’ we have not announced any plans to alter the file size standard for Xbox Live Arcade games. However, adjusting the size limit is certainly an option in the future, and as always, we are listening to feedback both from gamers and developers on what will provide the best user experience. Whatever choice we make, we will hold a position that provides for the best possible Xbox Live Arcade gameplay experience.”

Next week, on Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday, Microsoft and Q Entertainment will release three new content packs for Lumines Live! and, for a limited time, Xbox Live members will be able to buy them for a reduced price.

Until February 21, the new Lumines Live! VS CPU Pack and Puzzle/Mission Pack will each be offered for only 100 MS Points to all Xbox Live members. After February 21 the prices will increase to 300 MS Points.

Gold Members will also have free access to the Heavenly Stars Skin Pack until February 21, after which it will go back to full price.

To use these new content packs you’ll need to purchase the main Lumines Live! game which will set you back 1200 Microsoft Points.

Lawyers suing Microsoft on behalf of Iowa consumers claim to have evidence that the company is withholding key application programming interfaces (APIs) from competing software companies, a violation of its 2002 settlement of its antitrust case with the US Department of Justice.

That evidence, according to testimony on 10 January (see page 7654 of the transcript), includes an expert review of Windows XP source code provided to the plaintiffs’ attorneys before the Comes vs Microsoft trial began in December.

“We intend to present this evidence to the jury; we’re just not sure when,” said Elizabeth Kniffen, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs allege Microsoft’s anticompetitive practices resulted in the company overcharging Iowan consumers. They are seeking as much as $350 million in damages.

The presiding judge in the case on Tuesday granted the plaintiffs’ attorneys and expert witnesses the right to inform the DOJ about the evidence.

APIs allow independent software companies to create applications that run on Microsoft’s platforms, such as Windows. The 2002 settlement of the federal antitrust case required Microsoft to share its APIs with third-party companies and to appoint a panel of three people with full access to Microsoft’s systems, records and source code for five years to ensure compliance.

But as recently as December, security companies such as Symantec were complaining that Microsoft was refusing to grant them access to a kernel protection technology in the 64-bit version of Windows Vista called PatchGuard. Microsoft argued that giving away access to PatchGuard would compromise Vista’s security, but it eventually agreed to create new APIs for Vista to let security vendors get around PatchGuard.

A Microsoft spokesman disputed the plaintiffs’ claim.

“Microsoft is in full compliance with the 2002 final judgment in the government case and has documented everything it is required to document,” he said. “All our work in this area has been exhaustively reviewed by the Department of Justice and the technical committee established under the final judgments, and the DOJ and technical committee regularly report on our compliance efforts to the court.”

The review of Windows XP source code was done by Andrew Schulman, an author of Windows programming books and a software litigation expert.

What should emerge sooner than the alleged proof, however, are more than 3,000 documents admitted as trial exhibits that the judge presiding over Comes v Microsoft agreed to allow be posted on the web by Friday.

Exhibits already available at the site, which was put up by the plaintiffs suing Microsoft, have been dramatic. They include the transcript of a 1996 speech by a then-Microsoft tech evangelist who referred to independent software developers writing for Windows and the company’s other software platforms as “pawns” and compared wooing them to persuading someone to have a one-night stand. The tech evangelist has since apologised.

There is also a copy of the 2004 emai written by then-Windows development chief James Allchin to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates, complaining that Microsoft had “lost sight” of customers’ needs and that he would buy a Mac if he wasn’t working for Microsoft.

A Microsoft spokesman said it was unlikely the new documents would be as striking as the already-available exhibits.

“Most if not all of those documents have been produced in prior cases,” he said.

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Microsoft has reissued an Excel security patch, published earlier this month, after the update made it impossible for some Excel 2000 users to open documents.

The problem affects certain versions of Excel 2000, which have been set to support certain Asian languages by default, Microsoft said.

Excel 2000 users will find that they cannot open some Excel documents after they install the MS07-002 security update, if they have also configured Excel’s “executable mode” to Korean Japanese, or Korean, Microsoft said in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

“This issue occurs because of the way in which Excel 2000 processes the phonetic information that is embedded in files that are created by using Excel in the Korean, Chinese, or Japanese executable mode,” the article said.

The MS07-002 update fixes five Excel flaws, and is rated critical by Microsoft. It is one of four security updates issued by Microsoft on Jan. 9.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer laughed at Apple’s iPhone during a TV interview the other day — and the clip is now available to see on YouTube.

Ballmer was speaking with CNBC. After laughing at the iPhone, Microsoft’s developer-loving head honcho claimed his company took “20-25 per cent of the high-end music player market” with its Zune music player.