Real Player program snoopy and invasive

[Guest guest]

I've heard Real Player is a spy program, and often it used to pop up of its

own accord when I hadn't even opened the prog to say 'error message'.

 

 

Keith McLean <keith48322003

AUFORN <AUFORN >

Friday, 5 March 2004 21:13

[AUFORN AUSTRALIA] Real Player program

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

Was reading the " Green Guide " , and noticed an article on the Real

Player media playback program. It looks like this program is full of

problems. I'm not surprised, really...why is it that half of the

interesting multimedia content is always provided in streaming .ram

or .ra format? It might provide secure and compact files, but it

makes it pretty inconvenient for visitors accessing these on

websites.

 

The link to the article is

http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/03/1078191381959.html

but for convenience (and I know they'll probably remove the article

fairly soon), I've reproduced it below.

 

Thanks,

 

Keith

 

-----------

Why the real deal is far from ideal

 

By Charles Wright

March 4, 2004

Livewire

 

Every morning when Bleeding Edge boots up our main PC, a program

called Real Networks Event Launcher (realevent.exe) tries to connect

over the internet to message.real.com.

 

It does not get far because our free Sygate firewall stops it in its

tracks. Sygate is somewhat more polite than realevent.exe. It asks

us, " Do you want to allow this program to access the network? " and

when we tick the box called " Over My Dead Body " (it is possible the

box actually says " No " ), realevent.exe finds it cannot call home.

 

Realevent.exe is one of the things that happen to your computer when

you install the internet streaming audio tool called RealPlayer (or

RealOnePlayer) from Real Networks.

 

We doubt that we have seen a more invasive, snoopy or downright

cynical program than RealPlayer, so we find it quite ironic that the

European Union is working on forcing Microsoft to include it in its

Windows installations as part of a proposed settlement of anti-trust

action.

 

They need not bother on our account. In our view, the tactics of

Real Networks do not deserve protection. They are in the business of

misleading and exploiting their customers.

 

Our original aversion to Real Networks sprang from the fact that

they clearly believe that in return for providing the ability to

play the occasional radio program or music event over the internet,

customers give it the right to spam and spy on them as well as slow

down their PCs.

 

We also object to the fact that the " free download " Real Networks

advertise on its site is not actually free, it is a 14-day trial of

the paid version. Unless you remember to cancel within 14 days, you

will have to pay for it. We imagine a lot of people fall for that,

simply because it is quite hard to find the real free version. The

link is small and written in grey text. And even if you do install

the free version, you are probably going to pay for it in other ways.

 

Now we have discovered a new reason to hate Real Networks. If you do

manage to track down the free version and install it, you will end

up with two new icons on your desktop.

 

One is a free offer from Real Networks. The other is an AOL

Broadband offer. Behind that icon you will find a new directory on

your hard drive - and no entry in the uninstall list in the Windows

Control Panel. Most people who delete the icon probably do not

realise that they have got an unwelcome directory on their drive

with even less welcome programs.

 

Would Bleeding Edge consider doing business with a company that

markets its broadband offerings like that? We would head for the

Over Our Dead Body button immediately - if only there were one.

 

RealPlayer's default installation also takes over the playing of MP3

files, CDs, DVDs, MPEG and AVI video and so on.

 

Bleeding Edge does not want RealPlayer to handle those files. The

most we would allow it to do is to play .RAM files - the streaming

audio files that the program was originally created to handle.

 

Last week, when we were cleaning up some problems on a client's PC,

we discovered 12 separate processes that were associated with

RealAudio. We got rid of all of them. We would suggest that all

RealPlayer users should do the same thing. Many are probably running

outdated versions of the program, and practically all will be

suffering from its intrusive behaviour.

 

This link shows you how to clean it all off:

service.real.com/realone/faq/r1p-010828-TAL-rap01408v.html

 

Because we did not want to spend a lot of time on the installation,

we fired up the least obnoxious RealAudio installation program. It

comes, of all places, from the BBC, via

www.bbc.co.uk/radio/audiohelp.shtml?help. The BBC decided it was

offensive to charge people a licence fee for BBC content, then make

them pay more to listen to it online, so they managed to negotiate a

deal with Real Networks not to install all the usual garbage in

return for using it as a player for the BBC's radio content. If you

have a little more free time, you can learn how to download and set

up the basic version of RealPlayer without the costly overhead using

an online tutorial written by Lee Overstreet. You will find a link

on that page under Software and Helpful Links.

 

Windows users might find it useful, in the event of having to

reinstall their operating system, to have a copy of all the critical

updates issued by Microsoft on CD - rather than having to download

them all again.

 

From the online newsletter Woody's Windows Watch, we have discovered

that Microsoft has decided to release a free CD that provides

precisely that resource, covering updates up to, and including, last

October 15.

 

cw

 

 

2004. The Age Company Ltd

 

 

 

 

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