Did Microsoft steal Media Player 9 technology?
Microsoft was ordered by a US judge last week to produce thousands of emails as part of an investigation into whether the software giant stole intellectual property from a small company called Burst.com and used it in Media Player 9. Richard Lang, chief executive of Burst.com, explained to ZDNet UK that his company had spent more than ten years developing and patenting a media transmission technology designed to send video and audio files electronically. From 1999, Burst.com and Microsoft worked together for two years, but while the IT sector was going through economic meltdown, their relationship went cold and Microsoft offered Burst.com $1m (£0.64m) for global rights to its software — an offer that Burst.com turned down. At the end of 2001, Microsoft announced a “third generation video streaming technology”, which appeared to be the Burst.com product, said Lang. “In early 2002, Bill Gates made the official introduction — they called the product Windows Media Player 9 — which in ou
