Yeah, I am well aware of how they were doing things back then. Keyword being, then ~1999. However, things have changed since then. Nor are they the only ones who have been called out for that stuff.
Show me a company that isn't hypocritical. As for the violation, why hasn't Apple gone after them in court? Reverse engineering is nothing new.
EVERY piece of software has flaws! Last time I checked, iTunes and QT have had security flaws that Apple sat on their butts about. Same with MS WMP, I could go on. Does that make it right? No, but don't act like Real is the only company who has ever done such a thing.
Think about it. Real makes money of people buying their services. WMP does not, because the WMP division is subsidized by MS. As for the tactics, what company doesn't employ tactics to get people to buy their stuff?
Got news for you, they have gotten rid of a lot of that stuff quite a while ago. FYI, it doesn't take weeks to learn how to turn the pop-ups off. All you have to do is look at the Help topics in the Help menu.