Vista's Legal Fine Print Raises Red Flags (All your computer are belong to us.)

The Toronto Star ^ | January 29, 2007 | Michael Geist

[quidnunc]

Vista, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, makes its long awaited consumer debut tomorrow. The first major upgrade in five years, Vista incorporates a new, sleek look and features a wide array of new functionality, such as better search tools and stronger security.

The early reviews have tended to damn the upgrade with faint praise, however, characterizing it as the best, most secure version of Windows, yet one that contains few, if any, revolutionary features.

While those reviews have focused chiefly on Vista's new functionality, for the past few months the legal and technical communities have dug into Vista's "fine print." Those communities have raised red flags about Vista's 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.

Vista's 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 user's 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.

Even after installation, the legal agreement grants Microsoft the right to revalidate the software or to require users to reactivate it should they make changes to their computer components. In addition, it sets significant limits on the ability to copy or transfer the software, prohibiting anything more than a single backup copy and setting strict limits on transferring the software to different devices or users.

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software." The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software.

-snip-

[Space Wrangler]

After a little further investigation, you may want to use the Belarc Advisor at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html. You can use the magic jellybean link that I sent, but you'll want to remove it immediately afterwards as it apparently is not liked by most anti-spyware programs. That is enough for me to withdraw my recommendation of it. The Belarc Advisor is a pretty handy little program in its own right though.

[George W. Bush]

Belarc Advisor: good stuff.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The first major upgrade in five years...

Geez....I considered WinXP's SP2 to be a major upgrade.

[jdm]

...will not "look like ass." ---Jim Alchin

Oh, my, that is hysterical!

[jdm]

Geez....I considered WinXP's SP2 to be a major upgrade.

Didn't SP2 come out in 2002, though? It's been about five years since SP2, as well (at least I think).

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Did anyone else run it and what did you think?

It was a great product when it was Giant Spyware Tool. I ran it as a MS beta and deleted it when it was no longer free. It was useless.
For spyware protection and cleaning you can't beat AdAware and Spysweeper.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

There are a variety of freeware programs that will extract the product code out of your existing copy of XP.

"Insane Keyfinder" is another. It also extracts the MS Office key.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

WinXP SP2 release date was August 25, 2004.

[ShadowAce]

[JerseyHighlander]

Go to this link, read it and click the View Results link at bottom of the page.

http://www.firewallleaktester.com/tests_overview.php

MS's Defender comes in dead last in every category.

[George W. Bush]

MS's Defender

One of those sick oxymorons like "French Army". And about as useless, well, except for constantly pestering the user and refusing to do what they tell it to do.

How can a company make billions of dollars off such crappy second-rate software? It constantly amazes me.

[Still Thinking]

"Microsoft Works?"

[Doohickey]

I run e-Trust on my work machine, and F-Prot on my home systems. McAfee has a version of Anti-Virus and ePO for Vista. Not sure about Symantec, but I wouldn't use their stuff for free.

More FUD crapola from the haters. Don't believe a word of it.

[George W. Bush]

McAfee has a version of Anti-Virus and ePO for Vista. Not sure about Symantec, but I wouldn't use their stuff for free.

Microsoft, under legal threats, opened the API in October. It's not clear yet whether the PatchGuard for Vista 64-bit (the default install in the next few years) will be opened as well.

Those products from Norton and McAfee have only been running on Vista for a few months at most. They're beta quality at best. And no guarantees that Microsoft won't sabotage them in subtle ways as they've done to so many other competitors in the past.

I wouldn't be buying any Symantec or McAfee stock.

The idea of trusting a company like Microsoft for your security when their own design errors have directly caused the very security problems we face now is just bizarre.

All the real desirable upgrade features from Longhorn were junked because Microsoft simply can't produce complex new technology. Instead, they took the Server 2003 source code, added a couple of puny awkward 3d tweaks and stole Gadgets (Widgets) and Search (Spotlight) from the Mac, made big price increases, forced people to get far more powerful machines or upgrade their current ones, and produced a dizzying array of different versions of Vista. I can't even count how many different "Vistas" they have.

Vista is a sad sick joke of an OS. Its security features will be broken very shortly or already have been, much like the new hack of their unbreakable HDMI/HDCP protection scheme. Vista will make our security problems far worse than they are with XP.

Vista also is broken on many machines that were sold in the last year as "Vista-compatible". Bad driver support, even for new hardware.

And if Vista is so great, then why are they already planning the release of Vista Service Pack 1 later this year? Another half-baked launch of a product that they'll get around to fixing later? Yeah, like they fixed WinXP SP2 so well.

More FUD crapola from the haters. Don't believe a word of it.

Ironic that M$ fanbois actually accuse others of spreading FUD, Microsoft's favorite tactic to destroy competitors and one they resort to rather frequently because their own technology is so mediocre. Well, I guess if you don't have a chair to throw at people...

[George W. Bush]

"Microsoft Works?"

Well, no, it doesn't. Heh-heh. But MS Works is actually a pretty good little suite for the price. Not everyone needs Office or just find it confusing. MS Works has a market slot and is a good, but not great, product.

[FreedomGuru]

made big price increases, forced people to get far more powerful machines or upgrade their current ones, and produced a dizzying array of different versions of Vista. I can't even count how many different "Vistas" they have.

In what freakin universe is Microsoft forcing people to use Vista?
Do you normally have a hard time counting to 5, thats the number of versions of Vista, including their Enterprise edition?
At least you can buy Microsoft software almost anywhere, and at a discount. Unlike Apple.
What big price increases? Vista Home Premium upgrade can be purchase around $150, Apple charged $129 for Tiger.

[rlmorel]

This is "A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection" by Peter Gutmann, University of Auckland

This is a striking read, and he appears to know what he is talking about. Anyone have any comments on this? It bears directly on this thread.