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more on Interesting interaction with Windows OneCare Live
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 11:57:59 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Date: June 23, 2006 11:44:33 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Cc: lauren () vortex com Subject: Re: [IP] Interesting interaction with Windows OneCare Live
From: David Pollak <dpp () athena com> Subject: Interesting interaction with Windows OneCare Live
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He told me that "in the fall, having the latest WGA will become mandatory and if its not installed, Windows will give a 30 day warning and when the 30 days is up and WGA isn't installed, Windows will stop working, so you might as well install WGA now." I'm wondering if Microsoft has the right to disable Windows functionality or the OS as a whole (tantamount to revoking my legitimate Windows license) if I do not install every piece of software that they send it updates.
Dave, During my recent interactions with Microsoft officials (e.g., the director of the WGA program) regarding WGA, I was repeatedly told that the "only" impact of not having installed WGA (or having a system that did not pass WGA tests) would be blockage from "non-critical" updates. (We can argue about what "non-critical" and "blockage" actually mean in this context, and about whether or not this action is appropriate.) I asked explicitly and was told explicitly that there would be no other negative effects on system operations, other than warning messages (which can mostly or completely be disabled by the user). While I am very concerned about the entire framework of vendor control and intrusiveness that appears to be represented by the direction in which MS is going, I doubt to the extreme that they would take any actions to fundamentally disable system operations. They told me that they wouldn't do that, and it would be insanely stupid beyond imagination to take such steps -- for a long list of technical, business operations, and safety reasons that are so obvious I won't bother noting them here. Not to mention that they'd be sued out of existence. I believe David in this case is dealing with a typically clueless (or misinformed, or overenthusiastic, or misguided) customer service rep. Microsoft might do well to emphasize to its call center folks the actual parameters of WGA operations, so as to avoid potentially very damaging misinformation being widely disseminated. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, IOIC - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- more on Interesting interaction with Windows OneCare Live David Farber (Jun 23)