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Mike Orr [sluggoster at gmail.com]
Found this in the EULA for MSN Messenger accounts:
Potentially Unwanted Software
If you remove or disable "spyware", "adware" and other potentially
unwanted software ("potentially unwanted software"), it may cause
other software on your computer to stop working, and it may cause you
to breach a license to use other software on your computer (such as
where the other software installed the potentially unwanted software
on your computer as a condition for your use of the other software).
By using the features of the service intended to help you remove or
disable potentially unwanted software, it is possible that you will
also remove or disable software that is not potentially unwanted
software. If a feature of the service prompts you before removing or
disabling potentially unwanted software, you are solely responsible
for selecting which potentially unwanted software the service removes
or disables. Before authorizing the removal of any potentially
unwanted software, you should read the license agreements for the
potentially unwanted software.
LICENSE AGREEMENTS for spyware??? I'm supposed to recognize what kind
of spyware has been surreptitiously been installed on my computer, and
know where its license agreement is?
Fancy Microsoft discouraging people from eradicating spyware, and threatening them with a potential license violation if they do.
-- Mike Orr <sluggoster@gmail.com>
Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]
On Fri, Jan 18, 2008 at 08:57:56PM -0800, Mike Orr wrote:
> Found this in the EULA for MSN Messenger accounts:[snip]
> LICENSE AGREEMENTS for spyware???
Sure; the only difference is that is used to be called a "Wind0ws End-User License Agreement", you had to sign it in your own blood and in the presence of three witnesses, and you had to send a cryptographically-signed video of yourself having sex with a duck to the OEM (it made things easier for them in case of any later, y'know, disagreements.) Now, they're more sophisticated than that: you just have to click a button (they just generate the video using their satellite-based spy cameras and morphing software.) That's what I call progress.
You're not actually, like, surprised, are you?
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *