On Tuesday 01 May 2001 02:07, you wrote:
> The original e-mail came from Toronto LUG. Buying a "naked" computer might
> soon be against the law. Sort of scarry thing. Unfortunatelly too many
> people are addicted to Windows, that's enough to make this work. Just
> thought I share it with good people of Mandrake list.
>
> Here's the first link.
>
> > > http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/18589.html
> > >
> > > Here is the second.
> > >
> > > http://www.aaxnet.com/news/M010425.html
It is certainly within their rights to do this, and it is certainly within
their potential to be a predatory practice. No one is likely to have
complied with the licenses well enough to withstand an audit--(You really
need a J.D. degree to break the shrink wrap). For example, a number of years
ago many people bought NT workstation to run Netscape Enterprise Server, then
in the blink of a MS attorney's eye, NT workstation became a license
violation for more than 10 simultaneous connections, and everyone had to go
buy NT Server which included "free" IIS. Yes this happened POST purchase.
Yes, the agreement said they could do it! Yes, the US constitution protects
citizens from the application of ex post facto laws by Congress but not from
signing away their own rights by breaking shrink wrap.
And it is likely to make the company even more hated than it is, if possible.
I have no problem with that, but Microsoft is giving personal computers a bad
name and making a bad taste in the buyer's mouths. Perhaps the slump in PC
sales is partially attributable to their activities and their playing the
role of 400kilo gorilla to perfection.
Civileme
