|
Well, i forgot the link in the first message but reposted it, perhaps you missed it? anyway, here it is again:
http://www.arachnoid.com/boycott/index.html
in answer to you both, here is some text from the link i posted. apparently you didn't read it?
******************
And make no mistake about it — Microsoft is breaking the law with the XP series, in many ways. Consumers have legitimate, lawful reasons to re-install software, reasons to install the software on two machines used by one person, reasons to re-install after a system failure, reasons to un-install and sell a computer program. But under the Fascist XP system, the consumer loses all these rights.
I would list all the laws Microsoft is breaking with the XP series, but that would require more space than your computer has memory. Here are some highlights:
- Presumption of guilt. Under American law, a person is assumed to be innocent until proven guilty. The XP system assumes a criminal intent, which is a violation of constitutional law, and then the software acts on this assumption, a power normally reserved to the police, which is an additional violation of law.
- Prior restraint. This idea, basically acting to prevent a crime before it is committed, is a very delicate issue in constitutional law, and because of the potential for abuse, it is rarely permitted. Absent evidence of probable cause, it is never permitted. Because there are legitimate reasons to do things not permitted by the XP software, Microsoft is engaging in prior restraint, and is thus breaking the law.
- Misrepresentation. In commerce, there are a set of assumptions about an item that is offered for sale. To put it simply, a consumer item is assumed to be suitable for its stated purpose, and this is implicit — offering the item for sale creates some assumptions that, if they turn out not to be true, are actionable. The XP software series very simply is not what it seems to be — a set of computer programs meant to serve the consumer's needs. This is false — XP only serves Microsoft's needs.
- Surveillance. By setting itself up as a moral judge of how people use their software, by micro-managing how people choose to use the XP programs, Microsoft has put into place the most insidious system of spying ever conceived in modern times. Once a consumer has experienced any version of modern-day reality — a virus that requires the software to be re-installed, one person with two computers, or who buys a new computer, or who wants to sell or donate the XP software to a third party — however these events turn out, Microsoft gets every detail, along with all your personal information. If XP comes to full flower, Microsoft will know more about you than the US Government knows or ever imagined knowing.
- That is the real reason for XP — it is not about preventing theft, it is theft — Microsoft, while preventing you from exercising your consumer rights, is also stealing information from you that you would never voluntarily give up. It is a desperate ploy to gather an incredible gold mine of information about you — your choices, your experiences, your name and address. And get this — you're paying them to do this to you.
|
... but would you still feel like that if you had to pay the 'normal' (
more like outrageous) price ?
