Real Networks will refund $2m to grumpy punters

Real Networks has agreed to hand over US$2.0m to satisfy disgruntled customers, who were railroaded into buying content thanks to pre-clicked boxes in web forms or “free” offers that nonetheless requested credit card details and did not make recurring costs plain. Consumers who, upon realising their error, requested refunds, …

[Oliver Mayes]

"People were charged for months — sometimes years"

Knowing RealPlayer, it probably took that long for the charges to buffer.

[Benjamin 4]

Someone is still running real player? Why??? I used it many years ago and it was rubbish then. There's so much better media players around today.

[tkioz]

Real Networks still exists? Holy Crap...

[an it guy]

you're not the only one surprised it's around. I've not used it for years, and then is was only because it was required on some sites.

[Luke McCarthy]

I haven't come across a website that requires Real Player for many years... Flash video killed it.

[bpfh]

some cool functions.

Is that it's free, integrates into Firefox, Chrome & IE. download FLV's from youpipe for "offline viewing". And allows you to convert FLV's to MP3. Apparently. From what I've been told. Not that i'd do such a thing as piracy hurts the media industry.

On that note, the Cannes film festival has started. I'm off to read the article about how the French film industry has never made as much money as it did in 2011...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: some cool functions.

And on the upsides it's riddled with adware and (used to have Spyware). It's clunky and invasive and has employed these dirty tactics for decades.

As for your downloading FLV, there are a squllion and one plugins out there that do that and plenty of OS / freeware that does file conversion, without all the shit they chuck at you.

[Toothpick]

Real Networks ...

... a company I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire.

[Anonymous Coward]

RealPlayer still exists because some people stubbonly stick to what they know.

I discovered last week that my dad was still using Altavista as his main search engine. And RealPlayer as his media player.

[David Dawson]

"More importantly, those practices were not up to the high standards we expect of ourselves."

And there it is. Company says, what we think of ourselves is more important than what our customers think of us.

If that isn't the inane gibbering of a company PR monkey who has lost the plot, I don't know what is.

[Count Ludwig]

Re: "More importantly, those practices were not up to the high standards we expect of ourselves."

http://www.dilbert.com/2012-05-23/

'Nuff said.

[CheesyTheClown]

Re: "More importantly, those practices were not up to the high standards we expect of ourselves."

I was thinking more like "our customers expect us to be dirty and not get caught"

[Magnus_Pym]

I remember Realplayer

That was the one where their business model failed about 10 years ago when it became clear the number of users was no indication of profit potential and putting in adds and bloat just pisses people off. Slow but terminal decline from then on.

I'm just glad that investors won't fall for that old flannel again.

[Martin 37]

Exactly what I'd expect of RealNetworks

It, and other products like it (AVG and so on), are what made the Web feel so grubby and commercial after the initial heady days of text browsers.

[adam payne]

I've not used Real Player in years and i'm certainly not going back to it now.

[Da Weezil]

High Standards?

"More importantly, those practices were not up to the high standards we expect of ourselves."....

....... and yet it took a court case to resolve it for those who were ripped off. Seems those high standards don't include auditing the procedures they use or making a full inspection of all the micro print that they ship with their malware and its pre selected options.

[Lockwood]

Wow.

RealPlayer! AltaVista!

I suddenly feel 10 years younger!

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody buffering... that buffering... installs buffering... real buffering... player buffering... gets buffering... what buffering... they buffering... deserve.

[Robert Carnegie]

I -like- it

Back in the day, you could choose RealPlayer or Windows Media Player, if you had Windows, or nothing if you hadn't. Sometimes streamed MP3, which took about twice as many bytes for similar sound quality as RealPlayer. Windows Media Player wasn't as good either, until later. The BBC used RealPlayer for some services, and in some cases they still have that content online, I think - if it's working. Thus, and not otherwise, it was possible to listen to BBC radio over a dial-up internet connection, including some programmes you'd missed. If you were lucky, it sounded slightly better than AM. This meant that the BBC was paying quite a lot of money for all this, of course. But, like Betamax, RealPlayer was a better product, and, like Betamax, that wasn't the deciding factor.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I -like- it

It was ok, but instead of just being a media play, it went on to try and be a web browser and all manner of stuff.

And everytime you had to jump through hoops to find the proper free version.

And then it would reset your file associations.

And then you had to have a one account (was that what it was called?).

arghhhh.

[Anonymous Coward]

You could choose RealPlayer?

"Back in the day, you could choose RealPlayer or Windows Media Player"

"Any and all concrete competitive intelligence like this would be greatly appreciated as we prepare for our Doc. RealNetworks Competitive Review. Please send to RNWKSWOT. More details on how you can participate by end of week"

"Friends don't let Friends use Real"

[Tree]

Definition of BLOATWARE

Real Layer used to be rather good even if its profits benefited Socialista Maria Cantwell. It soon became massively bloated as it tried to do everything for you. It was finally put out of its misery by Ad Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy. We need a privacy tool like those adware programs to protect us from modern day thieves Facebook and Google.

[JB]

RealNetworks???

I always used Real Alternative.