Topic: Activation for Windows Vista. More extreme than XP.

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

"We feel that to provide the user with the best computing experience that they need to be using genuine Microsoft products. Our current generation of WGA software can be easily bypassed, which is why we're setting up this more rigorous system," said Microsoft representative Vicky Tipton.

Privacy advocates say this move by Microsoft could force many users to alternative operating systems like Linux where a policy like this would be impossible because there are no Linux drivers available for retinal scanners.

[FPF-SCM_TraceyG_XC]

Even law enforcement authorities cannot take DNA samples from a person without a warrant (they can take them from crime scenes though). I cant see how Microsoft can enforce this policy without running into trouble.

[Nemesis]

Even law enforcement authorities cannot take DNA samples from a person without a warrant (they can take them from crime scenes though). I cant see how Microsoft can enforce this policy without running into trouble.

They (the police) can with your consent get the samples.  They can ask and you can agree, you just have the right to refuse if you so wish.

Since using Vista is "voluntary" they can put conditions on it that would be illegal if use was mandatory.

[Max Torps]

LOL That article was really funny. Nice find. I love the line, "Microsoft loses over a gazillion dollars a year to piracy", that really gave it away. 

[Nemesis]

LOL That article was really funny. Nice find. I love the line, "Microsoft loses over a gazillion dollars a year to piracy", that really gave it away. 

I wondered which part would be the give away.  That was the first blatant line.  Closely followed by "and this plan will do nothing "to keep us from making up a bigger number next year."  The section on murderers and rapists was a neon sign to anyone who read that far (I suspect Tracey didn't read the article - at least not past the beginning).

[KBF-Crim]

Hmmm...wonder if they will accept a sperm sample....

[Nemesis]

Hmmm...wonder if they will accept a sperm sample....

They don't have anyone that I would let receive one.

[Commander Maxillius]

Hmmm...wonder if they will accept a sperm sample....

They don't have anyone that I would let receive one.

Not in Security and Registration anyway.   The DP pool might though...

[TheJudge]

You know...Microsoft is much maligned because of their successful business strategy.  People like to pick on them the way the same people like to pick on Big Oil.  It's getting real bad you know, just because a company is able to make a gazillion dollars from all the wallets you possess collectively, it doesn't mean you have to bash them so much.  Remember, big business is good, without big business the economy wouldn't function.

If there had never been a Microsoft, we'd all be stuck on Apple or some other such crap...and they'd be having even worse problems, mostly because the thousands of hackers that go after Microsoft now would be going after them instead. 

Oh yeah, and PM me if you life in San Jose or Glendale CA areas...I  need people to send letters to those two congress members protesting the EU's awful attempts to block fair trade from software giants like Microsoft. 
[spoiler]
The fact that certain companies help pay my salary had nothing to do with this post.[/spoiler]

[E_Look]

Judge, I totally support your above post.  I think your reasoning in it is spot on.
But that still doesn't make Microsoft stop being evil   

[Vipre]

Glad I read the posts here, I stopped dead in the first paragraph, thinking "damned if I'm giving DNA to activate anything" 

While rereading it this idea cracked me up: "...fear that Microsoft could be using the information to build a giant army of clones. Tipton denied the claims saying that, "If we were going to augment our army of clones..."

Good read


TheJudge: "Remember, big business is good"

I'd have to say Big Business is on the fence of good and evil. Too much Big Business kills Little Business and turns business owners into former owners and new consumers. Even ignoring the fact that they in the long run decrease choice not expand it. I might have a choice between 50,000 varieties of tomatoes but they're still just tomatoes, give me a pineapple.

Look at situations where Big Business is fighting tooth and nail to kill off anything that might eat away at their profits, regardless as to the potential benefits to humanity.

[Nemesis]

Spoof articles like this do raise the valid question  "Just how far should they be allowed to go?". 

My own judgement is that with EULAs taking away rights already granted by law and laws such as the DMCA being pushed into existance to make it impossible (and illegal!) for you to use the rights the law already gives you that things have gone way to far.  Copyright laws not the EULA rewrites of them should be what binds you legally.  Why should software be covered by more stringent rules of copyright than books are?