FC: Disposal fees for unsolicited ads on new computers, by Steve Mann

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********

Subject: disposal fees for unsolicited advertising on new computers
From: Steve Mann <mann () eecg toronto edu>
To: declan () well com
Cc: gnu () toad com
Date:   Sat, 17 Feb 2001 03:52:07 -0500

> (3) She also sent a "Microsoft Word" document as an attachment.
> Reading such documents requires proprietary software that the reader
> must pay Bill Gates for.  The reason we have communication standards
> (like the Internet RFC 822 that defines the format of email messages)
> is so that one vendor can't lock us in and require us to pay them in
> order to communicate with others.  If Rep. Eshoo isn't a believer in
> monopoly, she should communicate in public standards rather than
> proprietary formats.


On a related topic, I find it objectionable that my new computers have
been vandalized with various stickers and unsolicited markings inside
and out.  Perhaps this viewpoint would be of interest to your email list.

Here is a letter I addressed to an email address at the site of one
of these unsolicited markings on the outside of my new computer, together
with their well-thought-out reply:


From:   Steve Mann <mann () eecg toronto edu>
To:     notheft () microsoft com
Subject: Vandalism of informatic property (unsolocited advertising+virus)
Cc:     mann () eecg toronto edu
Date:   Fri, 16 Feb 2001 06:16:29 -0500

Recently I purchased four new computers, and I requested that they be
shipped with no operating system, because we develop our own software
in my lab, and we have a policy against using Closed Source software or
operating systems.  Therefore, we would expect blank hard drives.

However, all four of my new computers appear to have been contaminated
with informatic detritus of some kind, which appears to include
an unsolicited advertisement.  In particular the word "Windows",
which appears to be a trademark of your corporation, appears on each
of my computers when booted.

Presently, we are posting a copy of this waste material to our main WWW
server to seek advice from the computer science community as a whole,
on how best to dispose of it, as well as advice on what fee would be
reasonable for us to charge for its disposal.

We are also seeking advice from the community, and hoping that other
scientists can analyze these waste products to confirm their origin,
as well as give us advice on how best to decontaminate our systems,
and to obtain three independent quotations for having this unwanted
material verifiably removed from our computers.

Since the hard drives in question are each approximately 40 gigabytes,
and the best way for us to make this waste matter available to other
scientists for analysis has been to "dd" the entire hard drive contents
to our WWW site, this requires considerable space on our main file
server that supports or WWW server.

Accordingly, we seek a storage fee for this waste matter, until such
time as we can collect sufficient opinions on how best to dispose of it,
and to ensure that it has not adversely affected any of our computers,
as well as how best to ensure that new computers we order in the future
are not similarly contaminated.

Any advice you can provide on the nature of this waste product would
be greatly appreciated, especially if it might expedite the analysis
so that we can free up the 160 gigabytes of space on our WWW server
that the samples occupy.

The unsolicited message displayed on the screens seem to partly match
a sticker that was found on the side of each computer reading "Windows
2000 Professional 1-2 CPU Certificiate of Authenticity".

It might seem, therefore, that your corporation would be the
corporation responsible for contamination of my computers with
this waste product, virus, or unsolicited advertising material.

Please advise if your company can assume blame for this deliberate
vandalism of my new computer, or if this was an accidental act and
merely a result of negligence on the part of your company.

I would welcome your comments on what fee you feel might be
reasonable fee for disposing of this material, and how long we should
need to keep it publically available on our WWW server for reasonable
analysis.

I am sending to this email address because this is the address that
I find from visiting the WWW site that appears on the unsolicited
stickers attached to the outsides of my new computers.

I will also be scanning the surfaces of my computers and posting copies
of these stickers to the WWW in order to obtain a quote for having
them removed from the outsides of my computers and having the housings
cleaned.

If you can advise on a removal process for these unsolicited
advertising stickers, or what you feel you might be willing
to pay as a reasonable fee for their removal, please advise.



Dr. S. Mann
284 Bloor St. W., Suite 701,
Toronto, Ontario,
M5S 3B8

>From notheft () microsoft com Fri Feb 16 06:18:11 2001
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From:   Canadian Anti-Piracy Hotline <notheft () microsoft com>
To:     Steve Mann <mann () eecg toronto edu>
Subject: RE: Vandalism of informatic property (unsolocited advertising+vir
        us)
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)
Date:   Fri, 16 Feb 2001 06:17:54 -0500
Return-Path: <notheft () microsoft com>
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Status: OR

Thank you for contacting the Microsoft Anti-Piracy Team.  Microsoft devotes
substantial time and energy toward fighting software piracy and we
appreciate your interest in our initiatives.

If the nature of your email involved a question or a request for additional
information on software piracy, a member of our Anti-Piracy Team will
respond as soon as possible.

If the nature of your email involved the possible unauthorized copying
and/or distribution of Microsoft software, please be assured we will
investigate further the matter you reported and will take the appropriate
action.  Due to the sensitive legal nature of these matters, we cannot
provide updates on the status of our investigations.

You may visit us at http://www.microsoft.com/canada/piracy to review
additional information on recognizing genuine Microsoft product, Microsoft's
licensing policies and current news about Microsoft's anti-piracy
initiatives.

Further information about anti-piracy can be obtained from the Canadian
Alliance Against Software Theft at http://www.caast.org

Thank you for supporting the fight against software theft.

Microsoft Corporation
International Law & Corporate Affairs
Anti-Piracy Team




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