Hi, As everyone knows, ActiveX controls and the <OBJECT> tag has been a big source of security holes in Internet Explorer. However, it looks like support for ActiveX controls is going to be removed from Internet Explorer. A small company called Eolas recently won a $521 million judgment against Microsoft for patent infringement. The Eolas patent covers plugins in Web pages to show multimedia content. The $521 million payment covers past infringement. Because Bill Gates loathes to pay per-copy royalties, it looks like Microsoft is going to either partially or completely remove support for ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer rather than pay Eolas any more money. This Internetnews.com article talks about the fallout from the Eolas victory: http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3070591 Here's the Eolas patent: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL &p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=5,838,906.WKU.&OS=PN/5,838, 906&RS=PN/5,838,906 (This URL will probably requiring copying and pasting into your browser since it wraps to 2 or 3 lines.) The W3C has set up a discussion list to talk about replacements for ActiveX in Internet Explorer: http://www.w3.org/2003/08/patent I hope that security people also join this list. This redesign of the Internet Explorer browser looks like the perfect time to put pressure on Microsoft to put in place a proper security system for browser add-ins. Thanks, Richard M. Smith http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
