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Focus on what you do best. This age-old strategy has worked well for RealNetworks, Microsoft’s main competitor in multimedia software for the Internet. Now, the smaller Seattle-based firm is trying a novel way to contain the software giant. On October 29th, it released the underlying recipe, or source-code, of its RealPlayer software and will soon do the same for its other programs—giving away a big chunk of its intellectual property.
This may sound like a desperate echo of 1998, when Netscape, struggling in Microsoft’s chokehold, published the source-code of its web browser (an initiative that yielded few real results until this June, when the first serious new version of the open-source browser, Mozilla, was released). Yet RealNetworks is not playing defence. It is trying to encourage the creation of a common multimedia software infrastructure for every kind of file format and device, thus thwarting Microsoft’s ambitions in this promising market.
The firm hopes that others in the industry (volunteer programmers, media firms and hardware makers) will take the code, called Helix DNA, improve it and make it run on new devices, such as mobile phones and home stereos, turning RealNetworks’ software into an industry standard. Clever licensing terms are supposed to ensure that this standard does not splinter and that the firm still makes money.
Individual developers, universities and other non-profit organisations can modify the software as they please, and even redistribute it for free, so long as they also publish the source-code for their changes. This is a sort of payment in kind, for RealNetworks is then allowed to use these contributions. Firms, on the other hand, must pay royalty fees if they distribute more than 1m copies of the code. They also have to make sure that their software works with other Helix DNA products. The software’s development community already has 2,000 members. And several hardware makers back the effort. But there are risks. Afraid of piracy, media groups are suspicious of anything that might be related to hackers (although they also do not want to depend on, and pay for, technology controlled by Microsoft). The self-created competition could also hurt RealNetworks if customers decide its commercial products, which will be based on the open source-code but with extra features, are not worth paying extra for.
RealNetworks’ move is another sign that the software industry is going hybrid. Mixing elements of proprietary software, where the source-code is tightly controlled, with open-source programs enables firms to expand a market, harvest the ideas of others and, they hope, still make money. Even Microsoft is edging this way: it recently announced that partners can now look at—but not modify or reuse—the source-code for Passport, its controversial digital-identity service.
1. What is the RealNetworks’ new way of stopping Microsoft?
A) By selling its intellectual property.
B) By doing what it is good at.
C) By releasing the free source-code.
D) By severe competition with Microsoft.
2. Which of the following can be a disadvantage of releasing the source-code?
A) It can bring about self-created competition.
B) It can defeat Microsoft’s ambitions in this market.
C) It can use the improved software.
D) It can get royalty fees from some firms.
3. The expression “a desperate echo” (Line 1, Paragraph 2) most probably means ______.
A) a useless repetition
B) a poor resemblance
C) a shabby product
D) a dangerous copy
4. What does the move of RealNetworks suggest?
A) Microsoft fails to control the software market.
B) Software market is becoming a mixed market.
C) RealNetworks wants to make more money.
D) Software market is not fixed or stable.
5. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
A) Netscape had a sheer failure for its publishing the source-code.
B) RealNetworks wants to occupy the source-code market.
C) RealNetworks wants to make profits by releasing the free source-code.
D) Microsoft has to change its managing strategy.