[CoLoCo] Live by the EULA Die by the EULA

[Michael "TheZorch" Haney]

Steve Balmer is probably the worse thing to ever happen to Microsoft.  
He's totally straight-jacket crazy!  And the CFO of Microsoft is just as 
loony as he is, probably even more.  He's got plans for Microsoft and 
thinks he can run things in a manner successfully which has historically 
run many other companies into financial oblivion.  MS's coffers aren't 
limitless and the company is hemorrhaging money worse than the US 
economy is over Iraq!  Not mention that the company is hell-bend on 
possessing Yahoo and isn't taking NO for an answer.  Finally, the most 
disturbing thing I've heard recently is that MS intends to nickel and 
dime users for specific features of Windows 7 and that the OS will be 
modular and separated into several pieces.  When will they fracking 
learn that breaking up the OS into a dozen different versions only 
confuses the average consumer?!  Well, with the way things are going I 
can see Linux making the mainstream sometimes this year.  2008 will be 
the year everything changes, mark by words.

Kevin Fries wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-04-04 at 10:54 -0600, Jim Hutchinson wrote:
>   
>> On Fri, Apr 4, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Andrew <keen101 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>         What about Microsoft having restrictions over putting in MOD
>>         chips in
>>         Xbox's? It seems weird to me that they can make it illegal to
>>         modify
>>         the hardware you own. It's yours isn't it? Seems very strange
>>         that you
>>         cannot modify hardware that you own.
>>
>> Ianal, but aren't there some examples when you are NOT allowed to
>> modify things even when you own them. Perhaps most deal with making it
>> do something illegal. For example, you can't modify and a radio, CD or
>> other device to do more than it's designed for (at least to a point)
>> probably because you are infringing on the licensed air waves or
>> something. Doesn't apple claim you can't modify the iphone - even
>> though people do? Again, ianal but seems I've heard things like this.
>> How that affects ms I don't know.
>>     
>
> You notice while Apple jumps up and down and makes allot of noise, they
> don't sue anybody... even the jail break people.  And if anybody has a
> questionable claim, its probably them.  The iPhone though is a different
> type of animal because it steps on both owners rights, and the FCC.
> Though even the FCC has begun to acknowledge owners rights in phone
> unlocking.  (i.e. according the the FCC you can unlock your phone, to
> move it from AT&T to T-Mobile, but you are not allowed to do that for
> other's, i.e. as a business)
>
> Somebody also mentioned about DCMA, which is one of the poorest pieces
> of s(*& ever written.  Even then, owners rights have never been
> challenged.  Making it available to others is what they get everybody
> on.  So, the $64M question comes up as: if I am no longer breaking the
> law by reverse engineering Microsoft Windows, and I now discover back
> door interfaces that Microsoft is using to hook into their own programs,
> and I use that knowledge to build a competing product... As of now, I
> broke the law by breaking the EULA.  DCMA does not come into effect if I
> don't make Microsoft's code available.  Nor does copyright laws.
>
> Lawyers will have a field day if this ever comes to pass.  But what
> little chance Microsoft has here in the states, is nothing compared with
> the rest of the world where software patents are not acknowledged...
> Like India (think of that irony).  When all the smoke clears here in the
> states, Microsoft (if they changed the EULA) would have a costly,
> draining battle where they will probably prevail with major damage.  But
> in the rest of the world, they will get beat to a pulp.  Little Billy
> bits all over the European and Asian grounds, I can see it now (oops,
> maybe that should be Stevie bits).
>
>   


-- 
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
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