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MSN Music Debacle Highlights EULA Dangers
,----[ Quote ]
| MSN Music’s EULA is a case in point. When active, MSN Music's webpage touted
| that customers could “choose their device and know its going to work”.
|
| But when customers went to purchase songs, they were shown legalese that
| stated the download service and the content provided were sold without
| warrantee. In other words, Microsoft doesn't promise you that the service or
| the music will work, or that you will always have access to music you bought.
| The flashy advertising promised your music, your way, but the fine print
| said, our way or the highway.
`----
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/msn-music-debacle-highlights-eula-dangers
Typical Microsoft. Run by lawyers to exploit people.
Recent:
EFF: Microsoft betrayed MSN Music customers
,----[ Quote ]
| The Electronic Frontier Foundation says that Microsoft has "betrayed" MSN
| Music customers and wants the company to make things right by issuing an
| apology, refunds, and eliminate digital rights management technology from the
| Zune music player.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9931304-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
UPDATE: Microsoft May Slowly Be Fixing Their Broken XBOX DRM
,----[ Quote ]
| A ray of hope from reader James—Microsoft was able to fix his broken XBOX
| Live account. Are they getting their act together? Maybe?
`----
http://consumerist.com/372215/update-microsoft-may-slowly-be-fixing-their-broken-xbox-drm
Related:
Television New Zealand Gives Up on DRM
,----[ Quote ]
| The New Zealand Herald has an interesting article about state-owned
| broadcaster Television New Zealand's on-demand streaming of media moving away
| from DRM (TVNZ has the same scope of programming and dominant market position
| as the BBC in England, though alas not the commercial-free public good
| mandate). TVNZ's head of emerging business, Jason Paris (who was at the
| recently-ended Kiwi Foo Camp) said the ad-supported streams outnumbered
| paid-for downloads by "many thousands to one" and so they're dropping the
| DRMed downloads.
|
| [...]
|
| TVNZ has been using Microsoft's PlaysForSure digital rights management
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| software to try to prevent downloaded TV shows from being copied. But just
| days after the launch of TVNZ OnDemand last March, the protection systems had
| been bypassed by viewers using software freely available on the internet.
`----
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/02/tvnz_gives_up_o.html
Torvalds pleased that DRM music is dying
,----[ Quote ]
| Linus Torvalds, coordinator of the Linux kernel, is pleased that music
| publishers have started selling more DRM-free music -- last year he said the
| technology was a lot of "hot air".
`----
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Torvalds-pleased-that-DRM-music-is-dying/0,130061733,339285934,00.htm?feed=rss
Microsoft ready to play with PlayReady
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is proudly showing off its PlayReady technology at MWC, but woe
| betide anyone who describes it as a DRM platform.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/13/playready_drm/
Embarrassed by DRM
,----[ Quote ]
| The point behind all this is, of course, to conceal the very existence of DRM
| from the user..
|
| Ergo, we need to shout about the presence of DRM from the rooftops: the more
| people know about it, the more they will dislike it, as Microsoft well
| understands....
`----
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2008/02/embarrassed-by-drm.html
Microsoft rebrands PlaysForSure to Certified For Windows Vista, confuses world
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM just took another step closer to the grave with
| the help of some rebranding.
`----
http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/12/microsoft-rebrands-playsforsure-to-certified-for-windows-vista/
Microsoft: We Like DRM
,----[ Quote ]
| Steve Jobs wants the music business to drop restrictions for digital
| tunes. But Microsoft, which began competing head to head with Apple
| in the digital music business last fall, is happy with the way things
| are, says media exec Robbie Bach.
`----
http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/08/zune-drm-itunes-tech-media-cx_df_0208bach.html?partner=yahootix
http://tinyurl.com/2lrz3y
Microsoft Tells Apple To Stop Complaining About DRM
http://www.podcastingnews.com/2007/04/13/microsoft-apple-drm/
Golden Rant : Microsoft DRM's gone too far
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft appears to have hit the wrong button on its critical
| Windows XP download service late last month, pretty well forcing
| every XP user to upgrade to Windows Media Player (WiMP) 11 if
| they (like me and many others) have the automatic download/install
| option enabled for critical updates.
`----
http://securityblog.itproportal.com/?p=712
The Longest Suicide Note in History
,----[ Quote ]
| Gutmann: The genie's out of the bottle before the operating system has even
| been released! But that doesn't mean Vista users in particular - and
| the computer community at large - won't end up paying for Microsoft's
| DRM folly. At the risk of repeating myself repeating myself, yet
| another reason to move to Linux.
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://blogs.pcworld.co.nz/pcworld/tux-love/2007/01/the_longest_suicide_note_in_hi.html
Avoid the Vista badge, it means DRM inside
,----[ Quote ]
| The root of this crappy DRM infection is Microsoft. It is the driving
| force here. This has nothing to do with protecting content, as we
| keep pointing out, there has never been a single thing that has had
| a DRM infection applied that didn't end up cracked on the net in
| hours. DRM is about walled gardens and control.
|
| He who controls the DRM infection controls the market. DRM is
| about preventing you from doing anything with the devices
| without paying the gatekeeper a fee. This is what MS wants,
| nothing less than a slice of everything watched, listened to
| or discussed from now on. DRM prevents others from playing
| there, thanks to the DMCA and other anti-consumer laws.
|
| Make no mistake, MS is pushing the DRM malware as hard as
| it can so it can rake in money hand over fist with no
| competition. It is really good at lock-in, in fact, the firm
| based its entire business model on harming the user so they
| have to comply and spend more.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=38926
DRM in Windows Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want.
| These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure.
| They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will
| cause technical support problems. They may even require you to
| upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software.
| And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're
| working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM)
| features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment
| industry.
|
| And you don't get to refuse them.
`----
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/02/drm_in_windows.html
Plug a Windows XP Copy Protection Hole
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft reports "limited" attacks on Windows XP systems via an unexpected
| path exploiting a security hole in a copy protection program that comes with
| XP. (Windows Vista is not at risk.)
|
| The program that attackers are leveraging is Macrovision's SafeDisc,
| optical-disc copy prevention software for Windows applications and games. The
| flaw is located in a system driver file called secdrv.sys. Microsoft
| immediately issued a Security Advisory.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140862/article.html
HD Monitor Causes DRM Issues with Netflix
,----[ Quote ]
| When I called them they confirmed my worst fears. In order to access the
| Watch Now service, I had to give Microsoft's DRM sniffing program access to
| all of the files on my hard drive. If the software found any non-Netflix
| video files, it would revoke my rights to the content and invalidate the DRM.
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/03/2339248&from=rss
Macrovision update plugs zero-day DRM exploit
,----[ Quote
| The flaw, though Symantec wasn't specific on this, involves a privilege
| elevation bug in Macrovision secdrv.sys driver that comes bundled with
| Windows XP and 2003 (though not Windows Vista).
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/06/macrovision_drm_update/
DRM – a big win for Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Recently I came to conclusion that Microsoft is the company, which profits
| most from the Digital Rights Management.
| I don't know the numbers, but I guess that DRM is little or no success for
| the recording industry. To say it stopped pirating films and music would be a
| joke.
| Microsoft people must have known that the protection would be broken very
| soon. So why they are implementing it after all?
`----
http://technocrat.net/d/2008/1/2/32809
EULA: What Are You Signing Away?
,----[ Quote ]
| EULAs are not negotiated or negotiable, they are rarely read, and they are
| frequently difficult to obtain, said Rasch. "I just bought an iPhone and
| couldn't even see the TOS until I opened the box, synched the iPhone and then
| agreed to the TOS -- and had to pay a restocking fee and activation fee if I
| disagreed," Rasch commented.
`----
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/58451.html
Unusable EULA's
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft's instant messenger app had a surprisingly readable EULA,
| but was a snooze-inducing 12 pages and 6,343 words long.
`----
http://www.usabilityblog.com/blog/archives/2007/03/unusable_eulas.php
MSN AdCenter - Impossible to read TOS
,----[ Quote ]
| As you can see from the screenshot above (click it to enlarge), the
| MSN AdCenter TOS is enclosed in a small box, approximately 1-inch
| wide by about 1/2-inch tall! Maybe it's because I was using Firefox
| and not Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but I still find it comical to
| the point of absurdity. I still signed up, but I wonder what Microsoft
| is hiding in that tiny box?
`----
http://grownupgeek.blogspot.com/2007/01/msn-adcenter-impossible-to-read-tos.html
Windows Vista's new spin on licensing
,----[ Quote ]
| As with corporate software licenses, the primary end goal here seems
| to be to maximize revenues for Microsoft, but MS's moves have the
| unfortunate secondary effect of eroding the consumer's fair-use rights
| --or at least the very useful illusion of fair-use rights--in the
| process.
`----
http://techreport.com/etc/2007q1/vista-licensing/index.x?pg=1reve
Vista's legal fine print raises red flags
,----[ Quote ]
| For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about who
| is in control by providing that "this agreement only gives you some rights
| to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights."
|
| [...]
|
| When Microsoft introduced Windows 95 more than a decade ago, it adopted the
| Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" as its theme song. As millions of consumers
| contemplate the company's latest upgrade, the legal and technological
| restrictions may leave them singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
`----
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/175801
A sneaky change in Windows licensing terms
,----[ Quote ]
| With a retail version of Windows XP, there are no restrictions on the
| number of times you can transfer the software from one computer to another
| in your household or office. That's about to change for the worse in
| Vista, with only one lifetime transfer allowed. It makes the outrageous
| price difference between retail and OEM copies even more difficult
| to justify.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=156
Microsoft flip-flops on Vista virtualization
,----[ Quote ]
| Software like Parallels Desktop for the Mac or Microsoft's own Virtual
| PC for Windows allow multiple operating systems to run simultaneously.
| When it announced licensing rules for Vista last year, Microsoft said
| that only Vista Business and Vista Ultimate could run as guest
| operating systems. The company said virtualization presents inherent
| security risks and that it hoped by limiting which versions of the OS
| could act as virtual machines, only sophisticated users and businesses
| would employ the tactic.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6191787.html
Microsoft is bad for business
,----[ Quote ]
| I recently read an article regarding the copy protection methods of
| Microsoft's next Operating system, Vista. And my jaw literally dropped to
| the floor.
|
| Microsoft is, in essence, a control freak.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft is bad for business because they take this level of
| annoyance to the highest level in Windows Vista.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft, hear what your customers are saying. You're doing a lot of
| things wrong lately. You're making the wrong choices in your business
| decisions. Other available operating systems are staking a claim at
| your dominance of the market. What will you do next?
`----
http://techstuff.goboardz.com/forum_topic.asp?ID=1102
Vista's EULA Product Activation Worries
,----[ Quote ]
| Mark Rasch looks at the license agreement for Windows Vista and how its
| product activation component, which can disable operation of the computer,
| may be like walking on thin ice.
|
| [...]
|
| "Does the Microsoft EULA adequately tell you what will happen if you
| don't activate the product or if you can't establish that it is
| genuine? Well, not exactly. It does tell you that some parts of the
| product won't work - but it also ambiguously says that the product
| itself won't work. Moreover, it allows Microsoft, through fine print
| in a generally unread and non negotiable agreement, to create an
| opportunity for economic extortion."
`----
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/423
TechnoFile: Incomprehensible gobbledygook and you
,----[ Quote ]
| Another fun tidbit: "The software is licensed, not sold. This
| agreement only gives you some rights to use the software.
| Microsoft reserves all other rights." So you don't own your
| operating system, Microsoft is just lending it to you.
|
| [...]
|
| Compare these terms with Ubuntu, the Linux distribution I use:
| "You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
| it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and distribute
| such modifications or work." I'm free to copy and change it as I please,
| and then to give those changes to other people. I sincerely doubt
| Microsoft will be issuing those terms anytime soon.
`----
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=5712
Tough new rules on Vista "OEM"
,----[ Quote
| This marks the death of the popular once-off 'I'll take one hard drive
| and an OEM copy of Windows with that, thanks' flavour of
| OS-sundae.
|
| Microsoft has also tightened up the specific rules around what
| hardware an OEM copy of Windows can be sold with.
|
| Straight from the horse's mouth -- "spokesperson" at Microsoft
| Australia:
|
| "OEM versions of Windows Vista must be distributed to end-user
| with a fully assembled computer system and must be pre-installed."
|
| Dang!
|
| To make the matter even more complex, Microsoft says that even with a
| "transfer to a new PC as many times as you like" retail edition, you will
| only be allowed to transfer your licence for Vista to someone else once.
`----
http://apcmag.com/node/4347
Vista licensing also limits benchmarking
,----[ Quote ]
| License transfers aren't the only thing the End User License Agreement
| (EULA) for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista OS limits. The license
| also puts restrictions on how benchmarks of certain components of
| the OS can be published, another issue that is raising eyebrows as
| Microsoft still has not clarified how changes will specifically
| affect users.
|
| According to the Vista EULA, because the OS contains "one or more
| components" of the .Net Framework 3.0, users can conduct internal
| benchmarking of those components, but can't disclose the results
| of those benchmarks -- or measurements to compare rival products
| -- unless they comply with conditions found at a Microsoft Web
| site.
`----
http://www.itworld.com/Comp/2218/061101vistalicense/index.html
Vista EULA stirs up a storm
,----[ Quote ]
| Is Microsoft trying to stop people from copying their icons?
| The same icons that were stolen from the likes of varying
| icon sets under Linux? Are they trying to keep the layout
| or organization of their screens protected as an IP right?
| I think that was done away with in the 90s when Apple sued
| Microsoft over Windows and the judge said basically thats
| ome things just can be copyrighted. Is Microsoft worried
| that the Linux community might try to copy their structure
| and implement it into various distibutions of Linux?
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35184
Vista EULA restricts display to one person
,----[ Quote ]
| Paragraph 3C of the EULA states that while the software
| is running, you can use but not share its icons, images,
| sounds and media.
|
| If Microsoft means to word the EULA this way, that implies
| you can't use projectors or linked video monitors if there's
| more than one human being present.
|
| It also implies that you can't take a screen shot of the
| Vista desktop.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35108
Do Microsoft's EULAs have any real legal basis?
,----[ Quote ]
| "Microsoft has no special exemption from the sale of goods act." Well,
| no, probably not - but it might still be selling you "services"
| instead of "goods". But the real point to remember is that it doesn't
| matter a jot what the "logical" position is, it is what the courts
| decide that matters.
|
| As far as I know, no one has tested Microsoft's EULAs in a UK court
| and, until someone does, Microsoft will just go on assuming that they
| work. And I don't fancy the risk of taking on Microsoft's expensive
| lawyers in court myself...
`----
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/04/25/microsoft_eula/
Use Health Vault, Lose Your Rights
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has announced (NY Times Article) Health Vault. What should have
| followed here is a review of the service by my actually trying it.
|
| [...]
|
| Heard enough? So had I. I'm absolutely going to pass on Health Vault. In
| addition to looking like the Microsoft Passport debacle redux, this is a very
| one-sided contract. They can harm you but you cannot harm them. There is no
| way for any 3rd party to verify that their privacy and security software
| works.
`----
http://www.linuxmednews.com/1191521272
HealthVault: No Commitments and a Sleeping Watchdog.
,----[ Quote ]
| Has Microsoft committed to keeping the promises that it has already made? No,
| just the opposite. Their privacy policy concludes:“We may occasionally update
| this privacy statement”
|
| Which means that when the commitments that Microsoft has made regarding
| HealthVault become inconvenient, they will simply change them.
`----
http://www.fredtrotter.com/2007/10/22/healthvault-no-commitments-and-a-sleeping-watchdog/
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