Internet Explorer altered to avoid liability

Microsoft is tweaking its Internet Explorer browser to avoid liability during a continuing court case with a new company backed by the University of California. In 2003, a jury awarded more than $500 million in damages to the university and the startup, Eolas, with Microsoft appealing the decision.

Developers are to be notified of the changes, which include the way IE handles ActiveX controls and Java applets.

News.com reports: “With the change, Web developers will need to slightly modify their pages or consumers will have to make an extra click to get to some content, such as for a Macromedia Flash-based advertisement.”

Michael Wallent, a general manager in Microsoft’s Windows-Client Unit, said: “We think that the user experience impact is relatively modest. We believe over the next six months, most customers will be running copies of Internet Explorer with this behavior.”

Microsoft will incorporate the new version of IE6 into all new copies of Windows and also into the next version of the browser, IE 7, which will be available for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and as part of Windows Vista.

It’s thought that existing users may also get the code changes as part of future security updates, Wallent said.