Peaches4U
January 24th, 2004, 02:20 PM
Windows Media Player's inadequate notification to users that it is in mute mode, WMP has been also criticized for:
-communicating to Microsoft about the user's usage of it
-installing with a unique identifier that could be abused to violate privacy.
Steps were taken by Microsoft to address these concerns after these issues were raised.
I undertand that the latest version, WMP 9, incorportates a method of protecting copywrite that will be proprietary to Microsoft. Apparently the business plan is that Microsoft would like to lever its presence on the majority of desktops to induce recording companies to use their coding when creating CDs because their coding would result in WMP 9 refusing to play copies of these CDs.
Some folks who create free software available for the asking have made a knockoff of WMP that they call Media Player Classic. It is based on what they consider the best version of WMP but which does not have security or privacy issues and which they claim because of its capabilities and features is a better player. You can read more about it here.
http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=18591&group_id=82303
It can be installed by only placing it in a folder. Removing it involves merely deleting the folder. As the above linked document indicates, it can also be installed in place of WMP. I think this is quite ingenious in light of Microsoft's advisory that once you install WMP 9 you cannot go back to previous versions.
-communicating to Microsoft about the user's usage of it
-installing with a unique identifier that could be abused to violate privacy.
Steps were taken by Microsoft to address these concerns after these issues were raised.
I undertand that the latest version, WMP 9, incorportates a method of protecting copywrite that will be proprietary to Microsoft. Apparently the business plan is that Microsoft would like to lever its presence on the majority of desktops to induce recording companies to use their coding when creating CDs because their coding would result in WMP 9 refusing to play copies of these CDs.
Some folks who create free software available for the asking have made a knockoff of WMP that they call Media Player Classic. It is based on what they consider the best version of WMP but which does not have security or privacy issues and which they claim because of its capabilities and features is a better player. You can read more about it here.
http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=18591&group_id=82303
It can be installed by only placing it in a folder. Removing it involves merely deleting the folder. As the above linked document indicates, it can also be installed in place of WMP. I think this is quite ingenious in light of Microsoft's advisory that once you install WMP 9 you cannot go back to previous versions.