IE Changes to affect existing web pages

[herb]

Eolas v. Microsoft in regards to US Patent 5,838,906.

Microsoft has indicated to W3C that they will very soon be making changes to its Internet Explorer browser software in response to this ruling. These changes may affect a large number of existing Web pages
Article [w3.org]

[dmorison]

Anybody with a "flash" heavy website (or indeed any website that makes use of the <object> tag) needs to keep themselves up to date with this issue.

[Hester]

I'm not sure what it all means. Can someone explain it for me?

[tedster]

I don't think there is a clear understanding of what it means, in practical terms to all of us. But it is a pretty big deal.

Somewhere in the code that enables embedded media to display in a browser window, there is apparently a patent violation. It's not clear to me if this only affects the <embed> tag, or if it also affects the way browsers use the <object> tag. I'm sure we'll learn more over time from the most interested and invested companies -- and the W3C.

It's probably going to go the way that the GIF patent issue did, if the ruling stands.

[msr986]

More discussion:

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