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Re: Microsoft faces second class-action spyware lawsuit

  • Subject: Re: Microsoft faces second class-action spyware lawsuit
  • From: "Darth Chaos" <DarthChaosofRSPW@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: 5 Jul 2006 10:35:59 -0700
  • Complaints-to: groups-abuse@google.com
  • In-reply-to: <1345359.uFUv3CzP7T@schestowitz.com>
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  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
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  • Xref: news.mcc.ac.uk comp.os.linux.advocacy:1125855
Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] on Tuesday 04 July 2006 13:58 \__
>
> > Quote:
> > ---------------
> > A second class-action lawsuit filed in less than a week against
> > Microsoft alleges that a central pillar of the company's anti-piracy
> > effort - installed automatically on millions of computers - amounts
> > to spyware.
> >
> > [But first lawsuit is losing strength...]
> >
> > The second suit, filed Friday on behalf of a group of Washington
> > businesses and individuals, appears to refer to a test version of
> > Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), a Microsoft program that is designed
> > to check whether a user is running a legitimate copy of the company's
> > operating system software.
> >
> > Before it was updated, WGA "phoned home" to Microsoft servers once a
> > day, delivering information about a user's computer and operating
> > system. This daily communication was not disclosed when WGA was
> > installed and fits the definition of spyware offered by at least two
> > computer security groups, the Washington suit alleges.
> >
> > It also states that users who elected to receive automatic updates from
> > Microsoft "received WGA without user action, as though it was a
> > critical security update - which it is not."
> > --------------
> > End quote
> >
> >
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003103175_microsoft04.html
>
> If two class-action lawsuit are successful, will Windows users receive double
> the damages? *grin*

I thought stealth-installation of spyware was now a federal felony. If
so, MS should be prosecuted. If Enron execs can be convicted, so can MS
execs. (I wonder if Bill Gates would die while awaiting sentencing, as
Ken Lay did this morning.)


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