Multimedia is Saved?

A while ago, I published a summary and critique of the recent Microsoft vs. Eolas ruling, which endangered the basic technology which drives the delivery of Flash, Quicktime, Shockwave, and other multimedia content. Well, much news has occurred over the last 24 hours. After weeks of silence, companies like Microsoft, Macromedia, and Apple have come out with work-arounds which they believe will enable websites to continue functioning after Microsoft has rebuilt their browser. I just used the Macromedia work-around and it seems to work great. Now a word of caution - reports don't have the new IE browser coming out until later this year, so don't there's not a lot of pressure to change anything till 2004. But I thought it would be useful to have some resources ready for any, in case they need to make changes.

Who should be thinking about this? Well, anyone who does web development. Basically, any HTML and XHTML code that uses the OBJECT or EMBED tags. And those are popular tags...

UPDATE

I literally went to post this entry and then check the news, and there's more developments. News.com just announced that Eolas has just filed a motion to stop the distribution of Internet Explorer until Microsoft begins licensing the plug-in process from Eolas. Things just keep getting better and better - stay tuned!

UPDATE UPDATE

Macromedia just posted a nice presentation that shows the changes in the next Internet Explorer and what they and Microsoft are doing to address them. Also, it shows the use of their Breeze presentation software, very slick. Anyways, take a look...

Active Content Resources

Microsoft MSDN Developers' Page

Details Microsoft's upcoming changes to Internet Explorer and links to other providers

Macromedia's Active Content Center

Currently contains a concise description of the problem, as well as a set of JavaScript work-arounds for Macromedia content

Apple Computers

Instructions for including Quicktime Content

RealNetworks

Information for working with Real Media Files

News.com

An overview of Microsoft's announcement and related issues from C|Net News

Coverage by Web Blogger Jeffrey Zeldman

Coverage by Sidesh0w.com