Re: Microsoft finally acknowledges the security drumbeats

From: Philip J. Koenig (See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid)
Date: 02/12/02 

From: Philip J. Koenig <See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid>
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 03:56:13 -0800

In article <MPG.16d283541ce4199198a889@corp.supernews.com>,
See_email_@ddress_below.This_one_is.invalid (Philip J. Koenig) writes...
> In article <3C68BD97.7070900@quiotix.com>, jbs@quiotix.com (Jeffrey Siegal)
> writes...
> > Warren L Holybee wrote:
> > >>Your neighbor can enter your garage to get his drill if you give him
> > >>permission to do so. Even more so if you have entered into a contract
> > >>with your neighbor to allow him to retrieve your drill from your garage
> > >>in exchange for, say, being able to use his hot tub while he's away.
> > >>(In this case, not only does he have the right to do it, but he can go
> > >>to court and force you to let him if you try to interfere.)
> > >>
> > >>Similarly, Microsoft can search your computer if you give or gave them
> > >>permission to do so, especially in the form of a contract.
> > >
> > > All quite true. That said, if my neighbor wanted me to sign a contract that
> > > gave him permission to enter my house to get his drill when he wanted it
> > > back, whenever he wanted, without asking me first, I would never borrow the
> > > drill. I also don't think the vast majority of computer users want to enter
> > > this agreement with a software vendor.
> >
> > I suspect you are right, but I also suspect that the vast majority of
> > them (the ones that pay attention at all, that is), will hold their nose
> > and sign it anyway, when it comes to Microsoft, because they really have
> > no choice. Which is about as strong an argument for abuse of market
> > power that there is...
>
>
> Amen. Although it's also a pretty strong argument for how willing
> people are to give up their rights, or to cede power to a monopolist
> at the drop of a hat.

After having pondered that over again I should say it's not
much proof of market abuse at all. People seem just as
willing to ignore/accept stupid EULAs from all sorts of
insignificant/far-from-monopolistic software companies, I
really don't think Microsoft's market position has much
impact on it at all.

My experience has been that the main reason people ignore or
accept such stuff is either A) they simply don't understand it,
B) they actually think it's fine that someone like Microsoft
dominates the landscape, C) they simply don't care, or some
combination of the above.

Now when the time comes that Microsoft actually starts poking
around people's PCs without their knowledge, and when this
becomes public, THEN these people who have been ignoring and
signing off on this stuff all this time may actually get very
testy about it. Witness all the consternation that broadband
users have bandied about after discovering that the cable
companies are actually starting to enforce the terms of
service that customers have been been signing off on the
last couple of years without a thought. Many examples of
such things.

At least 2 years ago I started making comments about how
important it was going to be for people to learn about how
to keep their computer secure in the era of broadband 24x7
connectivity, and how ISPs were shirking their responsibility
for not emphasizing these things to users. (preferring to simply
talk up the wonders of broadband without saying a peep about
the security issues) Now after Sircam and CodeRed and Nimda
and all these other things, all we're hearing about are
security, personal firewalls, exploits, Microsoft announces
they're turning over a new leaf (uh-huh), the govt has an
excuse to institute all sorts of draconian "cyber-crime"
provisions, and all these partnerships are being formed to
promote things like home computer security.

So it's not like these things are news, it just takes
a while for the general public to get wind of the issues.
And it certainly helps when it actually impacts them. So
far, people are mostly lucky with software and the vendors
haven't tried heavy-handed enforcement of EULAs. Once again,
when the time comes that Microsoft tries to make good on
their opportunity to poke around individual PC's without
the owner's knowledge, the sh*t very likely *will* hit the
fan at that time. 

-- 
Philip J. Koenig         The Electric Kahuna Organization       [anti-spammed]
----------------Computers & Communications for the New Millennium-------------
* To send email, remove numbers and spaces:  pjkunet64 @  ekahuna27 . com    *
*           Email Blacklists: stop using innocent users as pawns.            *
* Simple answers are for simple minds.  Try a new way of looking at things.  *

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