As a result of a patent infringement court case won by Eolas Technologies Inc. and the University of California, Microsoft is planning a change, early in 2004, to Internet Explorer that will affect millions of users and millions of web pages. As a result of the change, when a user of Internet Explorer for Windows views a page with "active" content (QuickTime, Flash, Shockwave, Java, etc.), I.E. will prompt the user with a dialog box once for each active component on the page. The "user experience" will be awful.
To avoid the problem, almost every single web page that uses <applet>, <embed>, or <object> tags needs an adjustment to the way these tags are coded. The recommended technique is to add external Javascript files containing functions that use document.write() to create the embedded object code.
Safari users will not be affected when such changes are made to web pages. Since Microsoft is no longer developing Internet Explorer for Macintosh, I don't think Mac users of I.E. will be affected either. But, unless the court ruling is reversed, webmasters (like me) and people with personal web sites will have to deal with this issue if Windows users access their web sites.
Apple, Macromedia, and RealNetworks have provided instructions for updating web pages. Macromedia is developing tools, including tools for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, to automate the process in the most common cases.
In a press release, Microsoft called the new behavior of I.E. a "modest change". I think a change that causes webmasters everywhere to have to rewrite pages or reprogram their content management systems is a change of huge proportions. I can't even imagine how many person-hours of work these changes will entail for corporations and institutions.
As far as I can tell, Microsoft is making the change not because of a legal requirement, but instead to avoid having to pay royalties to Eolas or the University of California. But this will cost the rest of the world millions of dollars. Apple is supporting Microsoft's appeal of the court ruling.
Relevant links:
Microsoft's Internet Explorer update notice
Microsoft's press release
News story on court case
Apple summary
Apple FAQ
Apple instructions for web page updating
Macromedia summary
RealNetworks summary
To avoid the problem, almost every single web page that uses <applet>, <embed>, or <object> tags needs an adjustment to the way these tags are coded. The recommended technique is to add external Javascript files containing functions that use document.write() to create the embedded object code.
Safari users will not be affected when such changes are made to web pages. Since Microsoft is no longer developing Internet Explorer for Macintosh, I don't think Mac users of I.E. will be affected either. But, unless the court ruling is reversed, webmasters (like me) and people with personal web sites will have to deal with this issue if Windows users access their web sites.
Apple, Macromedia, and RealNetworks have provided instructions for updating web pages. Macromedia is developing tools, including tools for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, to automate the process in the most common cases.
In a press release, Microsoft called the new behavior of I.E. a "modest change". I think a change that causes webmasters everywhere to have to rewrite pages or reprogram their content management systems is a change of huge proportions. I can't even imagine how many person-hours of work these changes will entail for corporations and institutions.
As far as I can tell, Microsoft is making the change not because of a legal requirement, but instead to avoid having to pay royalties to Eolas or the University of California. But this will cost the rest of the world millions of dollars. Apple is supporting Microsoft's appeal of the court ruling.
Relevant links:
Microsoft's Internet Explorer update notice
Microsoft's press release
News story on court case
Apple summary
Apple FAQ
Apple instructions for web page updating
Macromedia summary
RealNetworks summary