RealNetworks is fortunate to have received the M$ settlement as it looked like they were fading fast. It seems that they jumped ahead in the early days with some pretty good technology at the time, but then, I think that they sort of rested on their laurels as it was pretty much only RealPlayer and their neme$i$ with the Windows Media Player to provide media playback capabilities for the masses. It also does not help them that they developed a nefarious reputation for allegedly being one of the first spyware distributors. To a lot of people Real Networks is about as well liked as an IRS audit or an annual prostate exam.
There is a lot more competition and much improved technology around these days so I would probably cash in my RealNet stock, if I owned any. Streaming audio just isn't all that sexy anymore. The only reason that I may renew my Superpass subscription is for the 10 free songs per month I get as a member. I make good use of that and it doesn't hurt that they have the highest quality music downloads in AAC format at 192 kbps. Rhapsody is okay, but I don't use it nearly as much as I thought that I would. I find myself using J. River Media Center, Foobar2000, and my old friend Winamp for music most of the time. I go with PowerDVD for video as opposed to the RealPlayer.

RealNetworks is one of those companies who live by the proprietary doctrine. (Also known as the Gospel according to Sony.) They brag about being able to play all of the other formats, while at the same time encrypting their format so that it can only be played back by RealPlayer. God I hate companies that do that.
Although they were able to get away with that in the past, at least to me, it looks like that philosophy has now come back to bite them on their RealOne!

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