6 Comments

Vista Watch: Users Giving up too Many Rights?

January 29, 2007 by in Geeky with 6 Comments

The Toronto Star, instead of analyzing Vista’s new features focused on Vista’s end user licensing agreement (or EULA) and issued their commentary on a few item they found.

…for the past few months the legal and technical communities have dug into Vistas “fine print.” Those communities have raised red flags about Vistas legal terms and conditions as well as the technical limitations that have been incorporated into the software at the insistence of the motion picture industry.

The net effect of these concerns may constitute the real Vista revolution as they point to an unprecedented loss of consumer control over their own personal computers. In the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the “user experience” from the user.

Vistas legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the users knowledge. During the installation process, users “activate” Vista by associating it with a particular computer or device and transmitting certain hardware information directly to Microsoft.

I found the article a bit alarmist. Product activations have been with us since Windows XP, and Windows Media Player was built on DRM restrictions. I am a bit suspect that you can’t do a clean install of an “upgrade” version of Vista. What do you think?

Read More [via]


  • viperguy

    “deleting certain programs without the users knowledge”
    Isn’t that a bit too much?

  • Hax

    Well, try to see the whole case through Microsoft’s eyes:
    If you really want people to stop pirating your products you need to take such drastical measures like binding the OS to specific hardware, repeatedly checking legitimicy and automatically deleting those little tools that undermine that strategy.

    Ironically it won’t work. And it will punish those who legally aquired Vista.

  • http://www.donawilson.com/ Don Wilson

    Let me ask one question…

    How many limitations that Microsoft has set in before the launch date have either been changed (for the looser) or hacked? Quite a bit.

  • Hax

    Yeah sure. But they must at least try, right?

  • Chris

    I’ve read various opinions that claim that Microsoft might not have been, in fact, pushed to add the copyright protection systems, but instead did it to monopolize the content distribution industry. It makes more sense, as I don’t think the film industry would have near the clout or power to get Microsoft to change the OS so drastically. The crazy systems are instead ways for Microsoft to force consumers who want content to use Vista, as many content distributors would prefer the outrageous safeguards Vista uses.

  • Dan

    Dan, if you sound that article alarmist, would mroe along the same track make you scared of Vista?

    Try this one: http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/420

Privacy Policy | About Us | Contact Us | Write for us