My experience has been that when you click to "save" a "file" in Real
Player, what you're saving, in fact, is just a link for a fresh download.

The purpose of this technique is so that Real Networks can "serve" you
with a fresh payload of advertising. You see, Real Networks is an
advertising company. The technology is designed to expressely prevent
users from storing content. They want you back, over and over again.
They make their money selling eyeballs (yours).

To end users, Real Networks is abusive, dishonest, and sleazy. They
raped my computer during installation twice, and I'll never install
anything that comes from them again or do business with them in any way.
The fact that so many non-commercial broadcasters have standardized on
their technology is a shame. Sadly, once I figured out how it functions,
I realized that it is a good technology for what it does (so long as you
don't want high-fidelity music). Once Real Player is installed, it is
virtually impossible to un-install the program completely unless you
format your hard disk. That's been my own experience. (Quick Time is
about as abusive).

Having said that, there are alternative ways to foil this nefarious company.
1. Use a media player that employs the Real Alternative codec file set.
Real Alternative is typically packaged with Media Player Classic -- they
work well together.
2. Store and/or manipulate Real streams the only way that's possible:
use an audio file converter that grabs the Real stream after it's been
converted to audio. This is the one stage after which it is impossible
for Real to control the content or to control _you_. (I don't have the
name of one handy, sorry.)

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"Ed Chait" <edchait4remove@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:kBQpf.6508$Tg2.5477@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net..
> My experience has been that when you click to "save" a "file" in Real
> Player, what you're saving, in fact, is just a link for a fresh download.
>
> The purpose of this technique is so that Real Networks can "serve" you
> with a fresh payload of advertising. You see, Real Networks is an
> advertising company. The technology is designed to expressely prevent
> users from storing content. They want you back, over and over again.
> They make their money selling eyeballs (yours).
>
> To end users, Real Networks is abusive, dishonest, and sleazy. They
> raped my computer during installation twice, and I'll never install
> anything that comes from them again or do business with them in any way.
> The fact that so many non-commercial broadcasters have standardized on
> their technology is a shame. Sadly, once I figured out how it functions,
> I realized that it is a good technology for what it does (so long as you
> don't want high-fidelity music). Once Real Player is installed, it is
> virtually impossible to un-install the program completely unless you
> format your hard disk. That's been my own experience. (Quick Time is
> about as abusive).
>
> Having said that, there are alternative ways to foil this nefarious
> company.
> 1. Use a media player that employs the Real Alternative codec file set.
> Real Alternative is typically packaged with Media Player Classic -- they
> work well together.
> 2. Store and/or manipulate Real streams the only way that's possible:
> use an audio file converter that grabs the Real stream after it's been
> converted to audio. This is the one stage after which it is impossible
> for Real to control the content or to control _you_. (I don't have the
> name of one handy, sorry.)
>

I forgot to mention that I cut and pasted this from another newsgroup, but
it confirmed what I have always suspected about Real Player.

ed

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My guru blames so many of the computer problems she sees on home calls
for computer problems on Real Player -- it's like the plague to rid
your computer of it, too.


--
KATH

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"KATH" <KATH.20cbf5@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:KATH.20cbf5@nospam.com..
>
> My guru blames so many of the computer problems she sees on home calls
> for computer problems on Real Player -- it's like the plague to rid
> your computer of it, too.
>

It certainly is, and as that person mentioned, so is Quicktime.

ed

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