Something good that actually came from DU.
Looks like Microsoft holds all the cards, and you have none.
http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/423
| Quote: |
The terms of Microsoft’s End User License Agreement (EULA) for its upcoming Vista operating system raises the conflict between two fundamental principles of contract law. The first, and more familiar, is that parties to a contract can generally agree to just about anything, as long as what they agree to doesn’t violate the law and isn’t “unconscionable.” The second principle is that the law generally disfavors the remedy of “self-help.” That is to say that, if there is a violation of the terms of a contract, you usually have to go to court, prove the violation, and then you are entitled to damages or other relief.
The terms of the Vista EULA, like the current EULA related to the “Windows Genuine Advantage,” allows Microsoft to unilaterally decide that you have breached the terms of the agreement, and they can essentially disable the software, and possibly deny you access to critical files on your computer without benefit of proof, hearing, testimony or judicial intervention. In fact, if Microsoft is wrong, and your software is, in fact, properly licensed, you probably will be forced to buy a license to another copy of the operating system from Microsoft just to be able to get access to your files, and then you can sue Microsoft for the original license fee. Even then, you wont be able to get any damages from Microsoft, and may not even be able to get the cost of the first license back.
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Continued at link.
Even if your eyes glaze over, read the EULA for any software from companies that tend to be predatory toward their own customers. It's a good idea to read all EULA's no matter the origin.
Title edited by wumingsden What they're counting on is that the customer won't pay attention - which is really a good strategy since the average computer user(we're talking the people who can't name one thing on the screen and just think that if the e on the screen is gone they've deleted the internet) doesn't run a program to find the catches in the EULA.
| {name here} wrote: |
| What they're counting on is that the customer won't pay attention - which is really a good strategy since the average computer user(we're talking the people who can't name one thing on the screen and just think that if the e on the screen is gone they've deleted the internet) doesn't run a program to find the catches in the EULA. |
I'd have to agree there. What's scary (for MS) is that they don't seem to care about how quickly people are moving towards OSS, and this will surely drive more people into that arena. They think they're inviceable and that nothing bad will happen if they keep taking "genuine" advantage of people.Yeah, who here reads the EULA? I never do. Just that whole chunk of text makes me go crazy.
This provides yet another reason to never use Microsoft products. As soon as the ReactOS people get they're thing working well enough to properly support the Nvidia or ATI driver stacks, I'll not even need Windows around for gaming anymore and that will be good.
| Studio Madcrow wrote: |
| This provides yet another reason to never use Microsoft products. As soon as the ReactOS people get they're thing working well enough to properly support the Nvidia or ATI driver stacks, I'll not even need Windows around for gaming anymore and that will be good. |
To think that MS can legally disable your data/hdd is scary at best. But when you throw in that they are THE ONLY ENTITY WITH ANY SAY IN THE MATTER makes it even worse.
The ONLY thing keeping me on MS is Mastercam. And I'll be all over the fine folks over at CNC Software about porting it to another OS. I'd rather run a Mac at this point.
| lukeropro wrote: |
| Yeah, who here reads the EULA? I never do. Just that whole chunk of text makes me go crazy. |
lol, true, whenever I install a software, I simply just click the I Accept button even without giving a glimpse at the EULA, coz it is juz simply too LONG! | orcaz wrote: |
| lukeropro wrote: | | Yeah, who here reads the EULA? I never do. Just that whole chunk of text makes me go crazy. |
lol, true, whenever I install a software, I simply just click the I Accept button even without giving a glimpse at the EULA, coz it is juz simply too LONG! |
Yeah, in some installers, they require you to scroll down to the last sentence of the EULA before you can click "accept" which irritates me.Like most other people I never read the EULA. Its long and wieldly often written legal jargon which is designed to confuse.
Just because a term is in your contract which sign doesn't mean that is legally enforceable. In the UK if such terms were deemed to be unfair they would likely be found to be uneforecable. It just needs some brave sole to challenge them.
Dang, this is really bad. I have installed so many programs and I don't think i've ever read through ONE Eula... legally, i might not own my own soul!
I should really start reading them...
I think that there is alot of worrying over what most of us could care less about. I mean come on, I don't think Microsoft is going to try an get another 200 bucks out of Joe Schmo if there was an activation problem. It would be cheaper for them to just fix the problem and activate to OS if it is indeed a leagal copy. Also, if that is not the case, there are plenty of ways to get the information and/or personal file off the PC if Windows Vista does not boot. There are more OS'es out there other than Microsoft's.
OS X. Thats all you need.
Well, I learned the hard way years ago to read EULA & Terms of Service on every single piece of software that supplies one.
After dealing with numerous headaches from spyware, nagware, and badly-written programs in general, you develop the ability to quickly look through those god-awful long paragraphs of text, scanning for suspect sentences, phrases & terms.
It all boils down to having p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e, and realizing that an ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure when it comes to installing new software that you're unfamiliar with.
Quick Tip To Consider - Years ago, I decided to make a small text file for every program I saved to CD, and in that text file I wrote down any little bits of info about the program that I thought I might want to know later on.
That's just my way of jogging my memory about a particular program that might've had some cons, but I still liked it and considered it worthy of keeping.
In other words, if I downloaded a program to, say, burn CD's with, I'd create a text file named the same as the program itself (ex: BasicCDBurner_ReadMe) and I'd remind myself in that text file that BasicCDBurner.exe was shareware, was really fast and easy to use, was system resource-intensive, threw up a nag screen every time it was opened, and had a tendency to crash on a Windows 98 system, but that it might work better on a more current version of Windows.
And if there was anything I might've found fishy about some terms in the EULA, I'd remind myself of that, too.
