[Microsoft] MS security patch EULA gives Billg admin privileges on your box

The USA Register ^ | 06/30/2002 | Thomas C Greene

[JameRetief]

MS security patch EULA gives Billg admin privileges on your box

By Thomas C Greene in Washington

Posted: 06/30/2002 at 01:05 EST

If you caught our recent coverage of the Windows Media Player trio of security holes you may have followed a link to the TechNet download site for a patch, or you might have activated Windows Update. If you did the former (though, oddly, not if you did the latter), you would have been confronted with an End User License Agreement (EULA) stating, most ominously, that:

"You agree that in order to protect the integrity of content and software protected by digital rights management ('Secure Content'), Microsoft may provide security related updates to the OS Components that will be automatically downloaded onto your computer. These security related updates may disable your ability to copy and/or play Secure Content and use other software on your computer. If we provide such a security update, we will use reasonable efforts to post notices on a web site explaining the update."

"Reasonable efforts to post notices" somewhere on the Web. I think it's clear from the wording that MS has absolutely no intention of bringing this behavior to our attention.

Instead, Microsoft has just assumed the right to attack your computer and surreptitiously install code of its choosing. You will not be warned; you will not be offered an opportunity examine the download or refuse it. MS will simply connect remotely and install what it will, or install it secretly when you contact them.

This means MS will have administrator privileges on your personal computer. What they feed you may be infected with viruses; it may break your applications, corrupt data files, destroy weeks or months or even years of work, but you'll have no recourse if it does. By downloading this WMP critical security patch, which you must do to operate WMP safely, you'll agree to give Billg deed and title to your personal property and to leave Microsoft immune from legal retaliation if they damage your machine.

The pusillanimity of wrapping what amounts to a digital land-grant into a needed, critical security patch is matched only by the arrogance of assuming that Windows is now such a fundamental linchpin of a human life worth living that no retaliation in the courts or at the retail counters is conceivable. (And that's not to mention 'informal' retaliation by outraged IP warriors, which we fully expect to see.)

We've heard the Billg rubbish about Trustworthy Computing until we're sick to death of the trivial incantation. Ironically, Microsoft has just taken steps to make the Internet immensely more untrustworthy than it already is. When we know that arbitrary code will be secretely installed on our connected boxes by software vendors who are not accountable for the damage they may do, any issue of trust is obliterated.

May I suggest my (personally) favorite solution to that problem? ®

[Greeklawyer]

All you mac uses offer no practica solution.

In business and personal you are unable to compete.
Remember Windows IS a monopoly. Tell me how to block MS from poking in my machine, Tell me how to stop spy ware with programs like adaware, Tell me how to keep my information secret and private.

Forms and software I use are all in windows format, they may or may not be available in whatever other format.

If you want to fight for a cause, Fight to ensure computers can funtion without the need for an internet conection.

[ShadowAce]

As you said before....

[GulliverSwift]

All you mac uses offer no practica solution. In business and personal you are unable to compete. Remember Windows IS a monopoly. Tell me how to block MS from poking in my machine, Tell me how to stop spy ware with programs like adaware, Tell me how to keep my information secret and private. Forms and software I use are all in windows format, they may or may not be available in whatever other format. If you want to fight for a cause, Fight to ensure computers can funtion without the need for an internet conection.

Actually, I use non-Microsoft products besides Macs like Solaris, Linux, and MS-DOS successors. I used to not like Macs but since they threw out their old operating system and started over on sound fundamentals, there is nothing wrong with using a Mac. (Though it does take some getting used to if you haven't before.)

There are programs for both Linux and Macintosh that allow users of those platforms to run Windows programs should they choose to.

As for avoiding spyware, the best way is to use open-source programs which provide similar services but without the spying. Unfortunately, there are not enough free and open softwares available for Windows. If you want maximum internet privacy including the ability to ban popups, effectively manage cookies, block ads, etc. go to www.mozilla.org and download Mozilla which is totally free and has no spyware functions. Stay away from "free" Windows (and some Mac) programs that claim to give you something but in reality are spying on you.

WRT your last point, I'm not sure what you mean. Even Windows XP will let you "activate" it via telephone so you don't need an internet connection.

[Greeklawyer]

"WRT your last point, I'm not sure what you mean. Even Windows XP will let you "activate" it via telephone so you don't need an internet connection"

The producers want to know who bought their product. MS wishes to track you. Unless I connect my computer to a phone I can not access the program de jour. I do not see a mass market means of avoiding, Palladium and other attempts to monitor and or eliminate the fair use doctrine.

[Bush2000]

Or the fact that if you are a guy using a mac, some people will assume you're a homo...

What do you mean by assume? ;-p

[GulliverSwift]

The producers want to know who bought their product. MS wishes to track you. Unless I connect my computer to a phone I can not access the program de jour. I do not see a mass market means of avoiding, Palladium and other attempts to monitor and or eliminate the fair use doctrine.

It sounds like you are a potential Linux user. I recommend you go to http://www.lycoris.com or http://www.suse.com to see how far Linux has come in recent years.

SuSE and Lycoris's softwares are great and are both low-cost and very privacy-friendly. If there is a way to avoid Paladium, Linux may become the smart PC user's only choice.

BTW, I heard that you can just phone in the registration info for WinXP from a payphone. As far as Office XP goes, there really isn't anything it can do that Office 97 or 2000 couldn't do just fine. Office XP is really about getting businesses hooked into paying out money to Microsoft for "upgrades" whether they want/need them or not. I used to be a fan of MS but they have really changed in the past 4 years or so :(

[Bush2000]

"Hey, you usin the whole hand there doc?"

And let's not forget ...

"Ever do any time, doc?"

[Mr. K]

um... can you restate that using sentences and actual grammar? I have NO IDEA what you were trying to say...

[dheretic]

How about just make the caveat of using a personal computer be that if you don't install security patches made availible by the vendor and then get hit by something like a worm you are ineligible for law enforcement involvement on your behalf on that issue. If people don't take responsibility for their computer usage, then it shouldn't be protected. Stop pandering to impatient little $hits that are too lazy to learn how to use their computer. How many people that have sympathy for the vast majority of computer idiots out there would go ballistic if they were standing in line at a gun store and the guy in front of them told them that he's buying a gun, doesn't know how to use it and doesn't ever plan to go get proper training in its use? Too many people here act like they're the "poor little guy who just doesn't have time to learn how to use a computer." While I don't advocate any restriction on computer ownership, how many would be sympathetic if a teenage or yuppy driver crashed into them because he/she was too lazy to learn their car's control and get a feel for how it responds to them? It's about responsibility, something the vast majority of computer users don't think apply to them. I have always been willing to teach people how to get a good solid understanding of how things work so they can be responsible users, but if they ever take me up on it, they just tell me they "just don't have time to learn that." Fine, if you get h@X0r3D because you couldn't be bothered to let me teach you, don't come crying to me and I'll be damn near ready to take a baseball bat to your head if I see you complaining to legislators because you want new legislation so you can be both ignorant and still engage in whatever behavior you want regardless of how dangerous it is. Protecting John Q Citizen from things like the various email worms that go out if John Q Citizen refuses to take the educational opportunities availible to him is not the government's obligation.

[rdb3]

Tell us how you really feel.

[dheretic]

I evolved into a geek, I didn't use to be one. I didn't really know anything about computers until about 4 years ago. I knew basically how to use Windows, but that was it. I went from being someone that could barely figure out how to get DOS to list a directory at 12 to someone who is now capable of reading and understanding most Java and Objective C code without a problem and being near the top of my class in Computer Science at 19. I have no tolerance for people that want to have something but who won't accept the responsibility of learning how to use it. How many people preach individual responsibility on raising kids, learning how to use a gun, drive a car, maintain a house and being able to account for/control one's assets but then give a total free pass to people who can't be bothered to do the same with their computer. It is hypocrisy, plain and simple. If computers are so daunting to use then that is a damning admission from most Wintel users of how bad Windows is since "computer" and Wintel are synonymous in most peoples' minds. My aunt, a user who doesn't care about learning how to use a computer uses a Mac. She has no problems. My PC using parents do and they know more about their computer than she does about hers. Funny isn't it, that the world's dominant platform has that problem?

The average Wintel user just doesn't get why Macs still sell. There are plenty of laymen that realize that the Mac lets them be ignorant without endangering themselves. Apple realized something Microsoft never will: you cannot give full power to the average user, you have to lock up a lot of it and leave the keys for the users that want to go beyond the basics. That's why OSX is so damn cool. It lets my aunt remain blissfully ignorant of how her Mac works and she isn't going to hurt anyone with her ignorance. It also lets me be a UNIX geek. Microsoft has never figured out how to balance those two. It simply gives the average user way to much power up front. The future is probably going to be in internet appliances, not personal computers for the average person. A box that runs the software they need and provides an extremely limited set of options for them is ideal. It gives them only enough power to get their work done, but lets them feel nice and cozy knowing it won't let them do something stupid. That is afterall what the average user wants. Such a system would be hailed as a godsend by a LOT of people. And I don't blame them. Giving them a full a computer to do a few simple things is like giving someone a APC to drive to work when all they need is a Honda or a Ford.

[rdb3]

I can't argue with you. I'm doing all I can to realize my goal for this quarter so I can reward myself with that Titanium. Then I'll get my hands on OS X. I'll admit, however, that IF (big if, I know) MS came out with an OS that had a *nix underbelly like OS X, I'd go back to them.

[dheretic]

I doubt you would. They would find a way to turn even the most mature UNIX into an OS about as useful for realworld users as a gameboy.

[dheretic]

Until you get to the price. Something that almost all computer users have to deal with.

Used pintos are cheaper than used honda accords. Which one would you rather your kid drive when getting his/her first car, an el cheapo model or one that costs a lot more but actually works? In the end, there is one rule of economics that is practically a law of nature, you get what you pay for. The only good use for a <$1000 PC as a general rule is as a cheap *BSD/Linux server/gateway.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Used pintos are cheaper than used honda accords.

Apples and oranges, my friend.

Poor analogy. The two just don't compare. My kids life isn't dependent upon my choice of PC or Mac.

As much as you think it's the same, it isn't.

The only good use for a <$1000 PC as a general rule is as a cheap *BSD/Linux server/gateway.

This is also wrong. A PC that costs me less than $1000 is good for a great many things. Word processing, spreadsheets, fairly decent gaming and free internet access through a $20 internal dial up 56k modem, to name but a few.
I have one that is sitting on the other side of the room I'm in now that cost me a lot less than $1000 and we do all of that and a lot more with it.
I even have it networked to the 1Gb Pentium 3 I'm on now. My son and I have hours of fun playing Doom II death matches. (He simply is no match for me with a shotgun)

I'm not saying Mac is a bad machine. I'm just saying that I would never buy one.
And for a machine that I can't really open up and rip the guts out of to do an upgrade on a whim, it costs too bloody much.

[dheretic]

And for a machine that I can't really open up and rip the guts out of to do an upgrade on a whim, it costs too bloody much.

That applies to virtually every off-the-shelf PC sold in the US for the past 10 years as well. The new PowerMac G4 is more easily upgraded than virtually any PC on the market. The only ones that beat it are homemade PCs.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The new PowerMac G4 is more easily upgraded than virtually any PC on the market.

You say tomayto...

I say tomahto...

But then, you're only 19. You probably don't get the reference.

It's an old George Gershwin tune...

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

What part of microsoft/ Windows sucks don't you comprehend aye? R U listenin to me.Ain't you know windows be a slow losing dinsaur?

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]