Re: DirectX 9 SDK, Microsoft have got balls....

[Blue Boar <BlueBoar () thievco com>]

Peter Thoenen wrote:
> No..it would be a virus if it didn't warn you and you didn't intentially 
>  install it.  If you don't like what they are doing, don't install it, 
> Bill doesnt' have a gun to your head.  Nobody is forcing you and I bet 
> you (IANAL) that it is perfectly legal.  This is much the same way the 
> FrontpageXP warns you that by installing it, you give m$ permission to 
> unistall ANY software on your box they wish.  Needless to say, I don't 
> agree, so I didn't install it.  Nothing illegal about it though, its a 
> TOS agreement.

And I think this thread boils down to what can one get away with by telling 
the victim what you will do to them in the EULA.  We're not likely to 
settle any moral or legal questions on that subject here (unless someone 
would like to write an essay on the laws of software, ala Asimov's laws of 
robotics.)  Right now (at least in the US), the assumption is that if it's 
not otherwise illegal, you can require it in a EULA.  So, my license 
probably couldn't require you to perform sexual acts, because that would be 
prostitution.  I could require that you come clean my house in a french 
maid outfit, though.  (I won't be having any such clauses in my EULAs, I've 
seen what some of you people look like.)

This will never be settled until there have been some court cases that 
define what is permissible.  If you really want to accelerate the process, 
write a popular piece of software which license requires that the user 
remove all Microsoft software from their system, and never use it again. 
Enforce it programatically.  Make a Windows version.

                                                        BB