Real faced Netscape treatment, Microsoft court hears

Microsoft was ready to employ the same tactics to defeat video streaming competitor RealNetworks that had been used to beat browser rival Netscape, the court presiding over the latest instalment of the software giant's anti-trust case heard yesterday.

Lawyers representing the nine US states, who want to impose strong remedies against Microsoft, produced internal emails that they said showed the lengths the software firm was willing to go to in order ensure RealNetworks was defeated.

The email, sent on 3 January 1999, is quoted in the WSJ. It reads: "We position [video] streaming as a natural and native feature of our client and server operating systems."

The memo states that this was a battle not between two steaming technologies - Real and NetShow (the precursor to Windows Media Player) - but between Real and the number one operating system in the world, Windows.