more on Interesting interaction with Windows OneCare Live

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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
  ...
> 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



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