Vista - Vista EULA : 'Breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen at Redond'

Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson. But one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation that you lose baby!

Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls and boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the elicit and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving Vista. The legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.


October 19, 2006
"Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html

by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney

http://www.eff.org/
Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe at least six impossible things about what users want from software.

It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:

1.. Self-limiting software
2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
3.. Removal of media capabilities
4.. Problem-solving prohibited
5.. Limited mobility
6.. One transfer only
and a bonus,
7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video

Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its license into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license restrictions any more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from the Vista license.

1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use the software after the time specified in the installation process is limited unless it is activated. … You will not be able to continue using the software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover, "[s]ome changes to your computer components or the software may require you to reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you must consent to communication to Microsoft of information about the software and the device on which you have installed it. If you don't do so in time, your software will begin to degrade in function.

2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will from time to time validate the software, update or require download of the validation feature of the software. … [if validation fails] you may not be able to use or continue to use some of the features of the software." Again, your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact with the Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you thought you paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for the consequences if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you validation.

3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation list with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights management] to play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music file may take away your ability to play another, if the content owner (not the computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's features. Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio recording functions from its MP3 players, under music industry pressure? Prepare for that kind of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've agreed to it in the license.

4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between a TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to allow users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?

5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have to pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though, because most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their hardware, thanks to Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft won't offer refunds if you don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.

6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party…. [T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use of the software." You can give your old computer to Dad, but if he wants to give his older computer to the neighborhood community center, they'll have to find their own operating system (may I recommend Ubuntu?).

Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard

NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes MPEG-4 visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG LA, L.L.C.


Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal ownership, fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop, users could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and network effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most users.

While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the meanings of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass, software vendors shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying software" by the simple attachment of a click-wrap license."

CH

Red Queen at Red mond'--the words were made for each other.


"Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson. But
one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation that you
lose baby!

Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate
Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls and boys are
hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the elicit and
answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving Vista. The
legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.


October 19, 2006
"Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html

by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney

http://www.eff.org/
Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for breakfast
with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe at least six
impossible things about what users want from software.

It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system has
any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:

1.. Self-limiting software
2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
3.. Removal of media capabilities
4.. Problem-solving prohibited
5.. Limited mobility
6.. One transfer only
and a bonus,
7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video

Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its license
into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license restrictions any
more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from the Vista license.

1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use the
software after the time specified in the installation process is limited
unless it is activated. … You will not be able to continue using the
software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover, "[s]ome
changes to your computer components or the software may require you to
reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you must consent
to communication to Microsoft of information about the software and the
device on which you have installed it. If you don't do so in time, your
software will begin to degrade in function.

2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will from
time to time validate the software, update or require download of the
validation feature of the software. … [if validation fails] you may not be
able to use or continue to use some of the features of the software." Again,
your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact with the
Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you thought you
paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for the consequences
if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you validation.

3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for protected
content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation list with the
licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the software's
ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights management] to play or
copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music file may take
away your ability to play another, if the content owner (not the computer
owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's features. Don't like
the reports that Creative is removing radio recording functions from its MP3
players, under music industry pressure? Prepare for that kind of feature
flux to be routine in Vista -- you've agreed to it in the license.

4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical
limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to
anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's
often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between a
TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and
problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to allow
users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted
features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?

5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the
license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more
frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have to
pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though, because
most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their hardware, thanks to
Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft won't offer refunds if you
don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.

6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one time
transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party….
[T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and
use of the software." You can give your old computer to Dad, but if he wants
to give his older computer to the neighborhood community center, they'll
have to find their own operating system (may I recommend Ubuntu?).

Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard

NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes MPEG-4
visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4 VISUAL
STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR
INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER NOT
THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY;
AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG LA, L.L.C.


Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided
unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal ownership,
fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not
sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop, users
could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and network
effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most users.

While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the meanings of
his words at will, on this side of the looking glass, software vendors
shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying software" by the simple
attachment of a click-wrap license."

CH

Complete Non-Sense!
"Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson. But one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation that you lose baby!

Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls and boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the elicit and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving Vista. The legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.


October 19, 2006
"Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html

by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney

http://www.eff.org/
Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe at least six impossible things about what users want from software.

It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:

1.. Self-limiting software
2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
3.. Removal of media capabilities
4.. Problem-solving prohibited
5.. Limited mobility
6.. One transfer only
and a bonus,
7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video

Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its license into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license restrictions any more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from the Vista license.

1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use the software after the time specified in the installation process is limited unless it is activated. … You will not be able to continue using the software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover, "[s]ome changes to your computer components or the software may require you to reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you must consent to communication to Microsoft of information about the software and the device on which you have installed it. If you don't do so in time, your software will begin to degrade in function.

2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will from time to time validate the software, update or require download of the validation feature of the software. … [if validation fails] you may not be able to use or continue to use some of the features of the software." Again, your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact with the Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you thought you paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for the consequences if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you validation.

3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation list with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights management] to play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music file may take away your ability to play another, if the content owner (not the computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's features. Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio recording functions from its MP3 players, under music industry pressure? Prepare for that kind of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've agreed to it in the license.

4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between a TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to allow users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?

5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have to pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though, because most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their hardware, thanks to Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft won't offer refunds if you don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.

6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party…. [T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and use of the software." You can give your old computer to Dad, but if he wants to give his older computer to the neighborhood community center, they'll have to find their own operating system (may I recommend Ubuntu?).

Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard

NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes MPEG-4 visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG LA, L.L.C.


Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal ownership, fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop, users could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and network effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most users.

While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the meanings of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass, software vendors shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying software" by the simple attachment of a click-wrap license."

CH

Except that she's counsel for EFF who have won a number of suits against the
US DOJ and little Kevin doesn't know if he can get into a college let alone
a law school at this juncture.

CH


"Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eHhTjdD9GHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
Complete Non-Sense!
"Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson. But
one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation that you
lose baby!

Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel,
Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls and
boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the elicit
and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving Vista.
The legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.


October 19, 2006
"Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html

by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney

http://www.eff.org/
Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for breakfast
with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe at least six
impossible things about what users want from software.

It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system
has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:

1.. Self-limiting software
2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
3.. Removal of media capabilities
4.. Problem-solving prohibited
5.. Limited mobility
6.. One transfer only
and a bonus,
7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video

Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its license
into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license restrictions any
more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from the Vista license.

1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use the
software after the time specified in the installation process is limited
unless it is activated. … You will not be able to continue using the
software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover, "[s]ome
changes to your computer components or the software may require you to
reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you must consent
to communication to Microsoft of information about the software and the
device on which you have installed it. If you don't do so in time, your
software will begin to degrade in function.

2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will from
time to time validate the software, update or require download of the
validation feature of the software. … [if validation fails] you may not be
able to use or continue to use some of the features of the software." Again,
your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact with the
Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you thought you
paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for the consequences
if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you validation.

3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for
protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation list
with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the
software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights management] to
play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music file may
take away your ability to play another, if the content owner (not the
computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's features.
Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio recording functions
from its MP3 players, under music industry pressure? Prepare for that kind
of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've agreed to it in the
license.

4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical
limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to
anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's
often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between a
TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and
problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to allow
users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted
features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?

5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the
license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more
frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have to
pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though, because
most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their hardware, thanks to
Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft won't offer refunds if you
don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.

6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one time
transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party….
[T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer and
use of the software." You can give your old computer to Dad, but if he wants
to give his older computer to the neighborhood community center, they'll
have to find their own operating system (may I recommend Ubuntu?).

Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard

NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes MPEG-4
visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4 VISUAL
STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR
INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER NOT
THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY;
AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG LA, L.L.C.


Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided
unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal ownership,
fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not
sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop, users
could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and network
effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most users.

While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the meanings
of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass, software vendors
shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying software" by the simple
attachment of a click-wrap license."

CH

I was referring to the Lawsuits Against Microsoft, They (the Lawsuits) are
Complete Utter Non-Sence, Just FYI!

P.S. Windows Vista is 100% Ready for RTM on October 25th, 2006, Just FYI!

"Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
news:O8uiQRG9GHA.4708@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Except that she's counsel for EFF who have won a number of suits against
> the US DOJ and little Kevin doesn't know if he can get into a college let
> alone a law school at this juncture.
>
> CH
>
>
> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:eHhTjdD9GHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Complete Non-Sense!
> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
> news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson. But
> one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation that
> you lose baby!
>
> Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel,
> Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls and
> boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the
> elicit and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving
> Vista. The legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.
>
>
> October 19, 2006
> "Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
>
> http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html
>
> by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney
>
> http://www.eff.org/
> Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for breakfast
> with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe at least
> six impossible things about what users want from software.
>
> It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system
> has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:
>
> 1.. Self-limiting software
> 2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
> 3.. Removal of media capabilities
> 4.. Problem-solving prohibited
> 5.. Limited mobility
> 6.. One transfer only
> and a bonus,
> 7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video
>
> Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its
> license into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license
> restrictions any more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from the
> Vista license.
>
> 1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use
> the software after the time specified in the installation process is
> limited unless it is activated. . You will not be able to continue using
> the software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover, "[s]ome
> changes to your computer components or the software may require you to
> reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you must
> consent to communication to Microsoft of information about the software
> and the device on which you have installed it. If you don't do so in time,
> your software will begin to degrade in function.
>
> 2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will from
> time to time validate the software, update or require download of the
> validation feature of the software. . [if validation fails] you may not be
> able to use or continue to use some of the features of the software."
> Again, your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact with
> the Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you thought
> you paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for the
> consequences if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you validation.
>
> 3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for
> protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation list
> with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the
> software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights management]
> to play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music
> file may take away your ability to play another, if the content owner (not
> the computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's
> features. Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio recording
> functions from its MP3 players, under music industry pressure? Prepare for
> that kind of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've agreed to it in
> the license.
>
> 4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical
> limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to
> anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's
> often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between a
> TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and
> problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to allow
> users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted
> features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?
>
> 5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the
> license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more
> frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have to
> pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though, because
> most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their hardware, thanks
> to Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft won't offer refunds if
> you don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.
>
> 6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one time
> transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third party..
> [T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the transfer
> and use of the software." You can give your old computer to Dad, but if he
> wants to give his older computer to the neighborhood community center,
> they'll have to find their own operating system (may I recommend Ubuntu?).
>
> Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard
>
> NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes MPEG-4
> visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
> USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4 VISUAL
> STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR
> INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER
> NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE
> ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG LA,
> L.L.C.
>
>
> Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided
> unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal ownership,
> fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not
> sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop,
> users could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and
> network effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most
> users.
>
> While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the meanings
> of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass, software vendors
> shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying software" by the
> simple attachment of a click-wrap license."
>
> CH
>
>
>
>

P.S. I will be Voting a Straight Republican Ticket on November 7th, 2006
(so that those Pesky Darn Democrat's Can't take over the House and Senate,
and so that they can't try to Impeach President George W. Bush), I Support
President George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales (USDOJ) 100%, Just FYI.

"Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ei1JdYG9GHA.4860@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>I was referring to the Lawsuits Against Microsoft, They (the Lawsuits) are
>Complete Utter Non-Sence, Just FYI!
>
> P.S. Windows Vista is 100% Ready for RTM on October 25th, 2006, Just FYI!
>
> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
> news:O8uiQRG9GHA.4708@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Except that she's counsel for EFF who have won a number of suits against
>> the US DOJ and little Kevin doesn't know if he can get into a college let
>> alone a law school at this juncture.
>>
>> CH
>>
>>
>> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:eHhTjdD9GHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> Complete Non-Sense!
>> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
>> news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>> Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson.
>> But one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation
>> that you lose baby!
>>
>> Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel,
>> Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls and
>> boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the
>> elicit and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving
>> Vista. The legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.
>>
>>
>> October 19, 2006
>> "Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
>>
>> http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html
>>
>> by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney
>>
>> http://www.eff.org/
>> Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for
>> breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe
>> at least six impossible things about what users want from software.
>>
>> It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system
>> has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:
>>
>> 1.. Self-limiting software
>> 2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
>> 3.. Removal of media capabilities
>> 4.. Problem-solving prohibited
>> 5.. Limited mobility
>> 6.. One transfer only
>> and a bonus,
>> 7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video
>>
>> Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its
>> license into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license
>> restrictions any more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from
>> the Vista license.
>>
>> 1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use
>> the software after the time specified in the installation process is
>> limited unless it is activated. . You will not be able to continue using
>> the software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover,
>> "[s]ome changes to your computer components or the software may require
>> you to reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you
>> must consent to communication to Microsoft of information about the
>> software and the device on which you have installed it. If you don't do
>> so in time, your software will begin to degrade in function.
>>
>> 2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will from
>> time to time validate the software, update or require download of the
>> validation feature of the software. . [if validation fails] you may not
>> be able to use or continue to use some of the features of the software."
>> Again, your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact with
>> the Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you
>> thought you paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for
>> the consequences if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you validation.
>>
>> 3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for
>> protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation list
>> with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the
>> software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights management]
>> to play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music
>> file may take away your ability to play another, if the content owner
>> (not the computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's
>> features. Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio
>> recording functions from its MP3 players, under music industry pressure?
>> Prepare for that kind of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've
>> agreed to it in the license.
>>
>> 4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical
>> limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to
>> anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's
>> often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between a
>> TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and
>> problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to allow
>> users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted
>> features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?
>>
>> 5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the
>> license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more
>> frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have to
>> pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though,
>> because most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their
>> hardware, thanks to Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft
>> won't offer refunds if you don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.
>>
>> 6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one
>> time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third
>> party.. [T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the
>> transfer and use of the software." You can give your old computer to Dad,
>> but if he wants to give his older computer to the neighborhood community
>> center, they'll have to find their own operating system (may I recommend
>> Ubuntu?).
>>
>> Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard
>>
>> NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes MPEG-4
>> visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
>> USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4 VISUAL
>> STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR
>> INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER
>> NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE
>> ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG LA,
>> L.L.C.
>>
>>
>> Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided
>> unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal ownership,
>> fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not
>> sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop,
>> users could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and
>> network effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most
>> users.
>>
>> While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the
>> meanings of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass,
>> software vendors shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying
>> software" by the simple attachment of a click-wrap license."
>>
>> CH
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

Kevin John Panzke wrote:
> P.S. I will be Voting a Straight Republican Ticket on November 7th,
> 2006 (so that those Pesky Darn Democrat's Can't take over the House and
> Senate, and so that they can't try to Impeach President George W. Bush),
> I Support President George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales (USDOJ) 100%,
> Just FYI.

Please set up a web cam so we can all see the look on your face when
King W is dethroned.

Alias

KJP-

We all await your comments on November 8, 2006 after the Democrats gain at
least subpona power by taking over the control of House Committees with the
relocation of speaker Hastert who got caught covering up the page situation
as did the Priests and Cardinals in the Church, (which would happen if they
did so or not) and on the lost Senate seats by Republicans that will be
numerous.

Mission has been accomplished in Iraq--but it has been one involving the
hemorrhage of $3 billion a week, over 300,000 US troops,hundreds of
thousands of deaths of Iraquis, systemic abuse by American companies, nearly
35,000 US troops with permanant systemic neurologic and orthopedic injuries
that make normal walking and numerous other daily activities
impossible--eyesight being another, and a current quagmire.

One of the positive aspects that has emerged is the pending draft for one
Kevin Pansky as the national guard grandmother and grandfather deployment
runs out of bodies.

Killing via Iraq and Afganistan where the Taliban now is in complete control
is not limited to the lack of foreign policy, but medicare failure and
failure to deploy embryonic stems for diseases like Parkinson's, Diabetes,
spinal cord injury, and leukemias and lymphomas to name just a few are what
this current President and the abdication of oversight by the Republican
controlled Commitees in the House and the Senate have accomplished.

You can sum up the accomplishements of this adminstration with the slogan
"Death and more death on all fronts."

They do death very well and prolifically. I'd start by reading "The Hill"
and
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ to supplement what your high school
teachers aren't providing in the "No Kevin left behind" model of education
that stresses anti-Science, Intelligent Design, in an adminstration whose
FDA has been politically driven.

I assume you followed the indictment and pending sentencing of the former
and recently removed Bush FDA Commissoner, one Lester Crawford a DVM, not an
MD by the way from UGA or the University of Jaw Jaw.

http://www.fda.gov/oc/crawford/bio.html

It's here for your viewing pleasure--how 'bout them dogs and how bout that
systemically pathological Republican Cronyism? You can fill a bus now on
its way to federal prison with convicted and sentenced Republican
Congressmen and former Bush officials and the 465 visits to the white house
Jack Abramoff.

See:





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 18, 2006
Ex-F.D.A. Chief Pleads Guilty in Stock Case
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 - Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of food
and drugs, pleaded guilty Tuesday to lying and conflict-of-interest charges
in connection with stock he and his wife owned in companies regulated by the
F.D.A.

Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, who accepted Dr. Crawford's plea to
two misdemeanor charges, scheduled sentencing for Jan. 22 in Federal
District Court.

Dr. Crawford, 68, could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to
$100,000 on each of the two counts, but his lawyer has said she expects him
to be placed on probation.

Senior employees of the agency are barred from owning shares in companies it
regulates. Dr. Crawford and his wife, Catherine, accordingly sold their
holdings in nine companies around the time he became deputy commissioner
early in 2002, the government said.

But they retained shares in three others: the food giants Sysco and Pepsico,
and Kimberly-Clark, which makes consumer health products and other goods.

In addition, Mrs. Crawford held shares in another regulated company,
Wal-Mart, but her husband did not list them in his 2002 financial
disclosure.

In addition, Dr. Crawford, who is a veterinarian and pharmacologist,
exercised options to buy shares in a poultry biotechnology company regulated
by the Food and Drug Administration in 2003 and 2004, earning almost $30,000
altogether. He did not list them in disclosure filings, as he should have,
even though he properly reported the transactions on his tax returns, the
government said.

The conflict-of-interest charges stemmed from the Crawfords' ownership of
shares in Pepsico and Sysco while he was chairman of the Obesity Working
Group at the F.D.A., which was reviewing calorie-content labeling for soft
drinks.

There is no evidence that the obesity group's conclusions were altered
because of the Crawfords' ownership of stock, Howard Sklamberg, an assistant
United States attorney, told Judge Robinson.

Mrs. Crawford's brother, William W. Walker III of Birmingham, Ala., said his
sister had told him "if they had to do it over again, they'd put everything
in a blind trust."


I'd say that makes Monica and the trumped up Whitewater charges look like a
walk in the park.

CH

"Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:e%23juQhG9GHA.2268@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> P.S. I will be Voting a Straight Republican Ticket on November 7th, 2006
> (so that those Pesky Darn Democrat's Can't take over the House and Senate,
> and so that they can't try to Impeach President George W. Bush), I Support
> President George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales (USDOJ) 100%, Just FYI.
>
> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:ei1JdYG9GHA.4860@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>I was referring to the Lawsuits Against Microsoft, They (the Lawsuits) are
>>Complete Utter Non-Sence, Just FYI!
>>
>> P.S. Windows Vista is 100% Ready for RTM on October 25th, 2006, Just
>> FYI!
>>
>> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
>> news:O8uiQRG9GHA.4708@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> Except that she's counsel for EFF who have won a number of suits against
>>> the US DOJ and little Kevin doesn't know if he can get into a college
>>> let
>>> alone a law school at this juncture.
>>>
>>> CH
>>>
>>>
>>> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:eHhTjdD9GHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> Complete Non-Sense!
>>> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
>>> news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>> Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson.
>>> But one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation
>>> that you lose baby!
>>>
>>> Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel,
>>> Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls and
>>> boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the
>>> elicit and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving
>>> Vista. The legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.
>>>
>>>
>>> October 19, 2006
>>> "Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
>>>
>>> http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html
>>>
>>> by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney
>>>
>>> http://www.eff.org/
>>> Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for
>>> breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to believe
>>> at least six impossible things about what users want from software.
>>>
>>> It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating system
>>> has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:
>>>
>>> 1.. Self-limiting software
>>> 2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
>>> 3.. Removal of media capabilities
>>> 4.. Problem-solving prohibited
>>> 5.. Limited mobility
>>> 6.. One transfer only
>>> and a bonus,
>>> 7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video
>>>
>>> Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its
>>> license into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license
>>> restrictions any more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from
>>> the Vista license.
>>>
>>> 1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use
>>> the software after the time specified in the installation process is
>>> limited unless it is activated. . You will not be able to continue using
>>> the software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover,
>>> "[s]ome changes to your computer components or the software may require
>>> you to reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you
>>> must consent to communication to Microsoft of information about the
>>> software and the device on which you have installed it. If you don't do
>>> so in time, your software will begin to degrade in function.
>>>
>>> 2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will
>>> from
>>> time to time validate the software, update or require download of the
>>> validation feature of the software. . [if validation fails] you may not
>>> be able to use or continue to use some of the features of the software."
>>> Again, your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact
>>> with
>>> the Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you
>>> thought you paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for
>>> the consequences if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you
>>> validation.
>>>
>>> 3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for
>>> protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation
>>> list
>>> with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the
>>> software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights
>>> management]
>>> to play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music
>>> file may take away your ability to play another, if the content owner
>>> (not the computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's
>>> features. Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio
>>> recording functions from its MP3 players, under music industry pressure?
>>> Prepare for that kind of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've
>>> agreed to it in the license.
>>>
>>> 4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical
>>> limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to
>>> anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's
>>> often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between
>>> a
>>> TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and
>>> problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to allow
>>> users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted
>>> features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?
>>>
>>> 5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the
>>> license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more
>>> frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have
>>> to
>>> pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though,
>>> because most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their
>>> hardware, thanks to Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft
>>> won't offer refunds if you don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.
>>>
>>> 6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one
>>> time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third
>>> party.. [T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the
>>> transfer and use of the software." You can give your old computer to
>>> Dad,
>>> but if he wants to give his older computer to the neighborhood community
>>> center, they'll have to find their own operating system (may I recommend
>>> Ubuntu?).
>>>
>>> Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard
>>>
>>> NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes
>>> MPEG-4
>>> visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
>>> USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4
>>> VISUAL
>>> STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR
>>> INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A CONSUMER
>>> NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE
>>> ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG
>>> LA,
>>> L.L.C.
>>>
>>>
>>> Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided
>>> unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal ownership,
>>> fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not
>>> sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop,
>>> users could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and
>>> network effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most
>>> users.
>>>
>>> While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the
>>> meanings of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass,
>>> software vendors shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying
>>> software" by the simple attachment of a click-wrap license."
>>>
>>> CH
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>

They won't be able to Draft Me, I am 29 Years Old, The Draft Ends at Age 25,
Just FYI.

"Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
news:eb1g7rG9GHA.2364@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> KJP-
>
> We all await your comments on November 8, 2006 after the Democrats gain at
> least subpona power by taking over the control of House Committees with
> the relocation of speaker Hastert who got caught covering up the page
> situation as did the Priests and Cardinals in the Church, (which would
> happen if they did so or not) and on the lost Senate seats by Republicans
> that will be numerous.
>
> Mission has been accomplished in Iraq--but it has been one involving the
> hemorrhage of $3 billion a week, over 300,000 US troops,hundreds of
> thousands of deaths of Iraquis, systemic abuse by American companies,
> nearly 35,000 US troops with permanant systemic neurologic and orthopedic
> injuries that make normal walking and numerous other daily activities
> impossible--eyesight being another, and a current quagmire.
>
> One of the positive aspects that has emerged is the pending draft for one
> Kevin Pansky as the national guard grandmother and grandfather deployment
> runs out of bodies.
>
> Killing via Iraq and Afganistan where the Taliban now is in complete
> control is not limited to the lack of foreign policy, but medicare failure
> and failure to deploy embryonic stems for diseases like Parkinson's,
> Diabetes, spinal cord injury, and leukemias and lymphomas to name just a
> few are what this current President and the abdication of oversight by the
> Republican controlled Commitees in the House and the Senate have
> accomplished.
>
> You can sum up the accomplishements of this adminstration with the slogan
> "Death and more death on all fronts."
>
> They do death very well and prolifically. I'd start by reading "The Hill"
> and
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ to supplement what your high school
> teachers aren't providing in the "No Kevin left behind" model of education
> that stresses anti-Science, Intelligent Design, in an adminstration whose
> FDA has been politically driven.
>
> I assume you followed the indictment and pending sentencing of the former
> and recently removed Bush FDA Commissoner, one Lester Crawford a DVM, not
> an MD by the way from UGA or the University of Jaw Jaw.
>
> http://www.fda.gov/oc/crawford/bio.html
>
> It's here for your viewing pleasure--how 'bout them dogs and how bout that
> systemically pathological Republican Cronyism? You can fill a bus now on
> its way to federal prison with convicted and sentenced Republican
> Congressmen and former Bush officials and the 465 visits to the white
> house Jack Abramoff.
>
> See:
>
>
>
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> October 18, 2006
> Ex-F.D.A. Chief Pleads Guilty in Stock Case
> By DAVID STOUT
> WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 - Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of food
> and drugs, pleaded guilty Tuesday to lying and conflict-of-interest
> charges in connection with stock he and his wife owned in companies
> regulated by the F.D.A.
>
> Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, who accepted Dr. Crawford's plea to
> two misdemeanor charges, scheduled sentencing for Jan. 22 in Federal
> District Court.
>
> Dr. Crawford, 68, could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to
> $100,000 on each of the two counts, but his lawyer has said she expects
> him to be placed on probation.
>
> Senior employees of the agency are barred from owning shares in companies
> it regulates. Dr. Crawford and his wife, Catherine, accordingly sold their
> holdings in nine companies around the time he became deputy commissioner
> early in 2002, the government said.
>
> But they retained shares in three others: the food giants Sysco and
> Pepsico, and Kimberly-Clark, which makes consumer health products and
> other goods.
>
> In addition, Mrs. Crawford held shares in another regulated company,
> Wal-Mart, but her husband did not list them in his 2002 financial
> disclosure.
>
> In addition, Dr. Crawford, who is a veterinarian and pharmacologist,
> exercised options to buy shares in a poultry biotechnology company
> regulated by the Food and Drug Administration in 2003 and 2004, earning
> almost $30,000 altogether. He did not list them in disclosure filings, as
> he should have, even though he properly reported the transactions on his
> tax returns, the government said.
>
> The conflict-of-interest charges stemmed from the Crawfords' ownership of
> shares in Pepsico and Sysco while he was chairman of the Obesity Working
> Group at the F.D.A., which was reviewing calorie-content labeling for soft
> drinks.
>
> There is no evidence that the obesity group's conclusions were altered
> because of the Crawfords' ownership of stock, Howard Sklamberg, an
> assistant United States attorney, told Judge Robinson.
>
> Mrs. Crawford's brother, William W. Walker III of Birmingham, Ala., said
> his sister had told him "if they had to do it over again, they'd put
> everything in a blind trust."
>
>
> I'd say that makes Monica and the trumped up Whitewater charges look like
> a walk in the park.
>
> CH
>
> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e%23juQhG9GHA.2268@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> P.S. I will be Voting a Straight Republican Ticket on November 7th, 2006
>> (so that those Pesky Darn Democrat's Can't take over the House and
>> Senate,
>> and so that they can't try to Impeach President George W. Bush), I
>> Support
>> President George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales (USDOJ) 100%, Just FYI.
>>
>> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:ei1JdYG9GHA.4860@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>I was referring to the Lawsuits Against Microsoft, They (the Lawsuits)
>>>are
>>>Complete Utter Non-Sence, Just FYI!
>>>
>>> P.S. Windows Vista is 100% Ready for RTM on October 25th, 2006, Just
>>> FYI!
>>>
>>> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
>>> news:O8uiQRG9GHA.4708@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>>> Except that she's counsel for EFF who have won a number of suits
>>>> against
>>>> the US DOJ and little Kevin doesn't know if he can get into a college
>>>> let
>>>> alone a law school at this juncture.
>>>>
>>>> CH
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:eHhTjdD9GHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>>> Complete Non-Sense!
>>>> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>> Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson.
>>>> But one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation
>>>> that you lose baby!
>>>>
>>>> Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel,
>>>> Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls
>>>> and
>>>> boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the
>>>> elicit and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits involving
>>>> Vista. The legal vista for them has become one gaping money hemorhhage.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> October 19, 2006
>>>> "Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
>>>>
>>>> http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html
>>>>
>>>> by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney
>>>>
>>>> http://www.eff.org/
>>>> Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for
>>>> breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to
>>>> believe
>>>> at least six impossible things about what users want from software.
>>>>
>>>> It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating
>>>> system
>>>> has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:
>>>>
>>>> 1.. Self-limiting software
>>>> 2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
>>>> 3.. Removal of media capabilities
>>>> 4.. Problem-solving prohibited
>>>> 5.. Limited mobility
>>>> 6.. One transfer only
>>>> and a bonus,
>>>> 7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video
>>>>
>>>> Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its
>>>> license into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license
>>>> restrictions any more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from
>>>> the Vista license.
>>>>
>>>> 1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to use
>>>> the software after the time specified in the installation process is
>>>> limited unless it is activated. . You will not be able to continue
>>>> using
>>>> the software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover,
>>>> "[s]ome changes to your computer components or the software may require
>>>> you to reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you
>>>> must consent to communication to Microsoft of information about the
>>>> software and the device on which you have installed it. If you don't do
>>>> so in time, your software will begin to degrade in function.
>>>>
>>>> 2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will
>>>> from
>>>> time to time validate the software, update or require download of the
>>>> validation feature of the software. . [if validation fails] you may not
>>>> be able to use or continue to use some of the features of the
>>>> software."
>>>> Again, your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact
>>>> with
>>>> the Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you
>>>> thought you paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability for
>>>> the consequences if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you
>>>> validation.
>>>>
>>>> 3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for
>>>> protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation
>>>> list
>>>> with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the
>>>> software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights
>>>> management]
>>>> to play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music
>>>> file may take away your ability to play another, if the content owner
>>>> (not the computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media Player's
>>>> features. Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio
>>>> recording functions from its MP3 players, under music industry
>>>> pressure?
>>>> Prepare for that kind of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've
>>>> agreed to it in the license.
>>>>
>>>> 4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical
>>>> limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to
>>>> anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since it's
>>>> often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective, between
>>>> a
>>>> TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and
>>>> problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to
>>>> allow
>>>> users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted
>>>> features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?
>>>>
>>>> 5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the
>>>> license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more
>>>> frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have
>>>> to
>>>> pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though,
>>>> because most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their
>>>> hardware, thanks to Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft
>>>> won't offer refunds if you don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.
>>>>
>>>> 6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one
>>>> time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third
>>>> party.. [T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to the
>>>> transfer and use of the software." You can give your old computer to
>>>> Dad,
>>>> but if he wants to give his older computer to the neighborhood
>>>> community
>>>> center, they'll have to find their own operating system (may I
>>>> recommend
>>>> Ubuntu?).
>>>>
>>>> Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard
>>>>
>>>> NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes
>>>> MPEG-4
>>>> visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
>>>> USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4
>>>> VISUAL
>>>> STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR
>>>> INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A
>>>> CONSUMER
>>>> NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL USE
>>>> ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG
>>>> LA,
>>>> L.L.C.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided
>>>> unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal
>>>> ownership,
>>>> fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not
>>>> sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop,
>>>> users could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and
>>>> network effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most
>>>> users.
>>>>
>>>> While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the
>>>> meanings of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass,
>>>> software vendors shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying
>>>> software" by the simple attachment of a click-wrap license."
>>>>
>>>> CH
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>

I wouldn't bet on it. In case you are on another planet there are
contingency plans to increase the age of a draft it if happens, and
currently the voluntary enlistment is age 42 now with many of the criteria
lowered to the ground, and the last 2500 deployed from the National Guard
involuntarily were composed of grandmothers and grandfathers and there are
is a systemic demorlization of troups over extended deployments and
re-employments.

As the signs picketing my downtown and many from Vets say:

"Bush family send your children"

Aside from John McCane who is a Bush rubberstamp, and won't be President, no
member of the Senate has a kid going to Iraq and few members of the house
have.

I reported by the way Kevin when it was my time in a bloody war.

Bush hid literally for months when ordered to take a physical for trianing
in a plane that was going to fly in Nam--daddy Congressman got him into a
guard uniit where he was trained in a plane at first that never was to
deploy to NAM and he enhanced his cocaine and drinking binge skills and then
ran away and hid.

Cheney 5 deferments. Rummy no combat action whatsoever--he trained state
side. Wofowitz the idiot that forecasted oil would pay for Iraq and we
would be greeted as liberators no military experience. Rummy ran a
pharmaceutical company. Those are the ones getting all the financial breaks
with no competitive bidding on the medicare programs as thousands of seniors
on 3 chronic medicaitons can't afford their medicine.

I know you haven't had a chance to see these people struggling and in the
hospital as a result of this medication deprivation by the Bush
adminstration and Congress, but some of us do on a daily basis first hand
Kevin try reading a decent paper for a change and how is this for Bush
kicking butt and taking names:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/20/wo...gewanted=print

October 20, 2006
Attack on Iraqi City Shows Militia's Power
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
A Shiite militia that has been accused of a wave of sectarian attacks on
Iraq's Sunni minority has seized control of the city of Amara in
southeastern Iraq, attacking police stations and erecting checkpoints,
witnesses in the city said today. At least 15 people have been killed,
health officials said.

The takeover of Amara by the militia, the Mahdi Army, was a broad act of
defiance against the authority of the central government, which has been
trying to impose order and curb sectarian violence. The incident also raised
questions about whether Iraq's militias can be reined in.

It followed meetings earlier this week between the prime minister, Nuri
Kamal al-Maliki; the Mahdi Army's anti-American leader, Moktada al-Sadr; and
Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is
widely viewed in Iraq as the only Shiite leader with the authority to subdue
the Shiite militias.

The power the militias have to destabilize the country is demonstrated
almost daily, and the Maliki government is under mounting American pressure
to stem the violence. Just last weekend, Shiite militiamen went on a killing
spree in and around the town of Balad, murdering 38 Sunnis in reprisal for
the beheading by Sunni extremists of 19 Shiite workers.

Sheik Abdul Kareem al-Muhammadawi, a prominent tribal leader, said in an
interview by telephone today that the Mahdi Army responded by deploying its
troops in the city. He said the police were outgunned, with insufficient
weapons and ammunition.

"There is no state in the city right now," he said.

The clashes in Amara, culminating in what effectively was a seizure of the
city by the militia, appeared to spring from the assassination this week of
a senior police official loyal to another powerful Shiite militia, the Badr
Organization. The official's family and the Badr group accused the Mahdi
Army of being behind that killing, according to an account from Amara. A
brother of a Mahdi Army commander was then kidnapped in reprisal, the
account said.

A British military spokesman in the area, Maj. Charlie Burbridge, said in an
interview with CNN that the violence of Thursday and today sprang from the
local dispute, and that it did not mean the Mahdi Army intended to take over
the city.

He told Reuters that the Iraqi Army had deployed about 230 troops to help
defend police stations, while British forces kept up reconnaissance from the
air and stood ready to offer more assistance if asked.

"Some of these clashes became quite intense exchanges of fire," Major
Burbridge was quoted by the news agency as saying.British troops occupied a
military base in Amara, which is near the Iranian border, for several years
after the 2003 invasion, and the base was a frequent target of attacks by
Shiite militias. It was turned over to Iraqi control in August.

The nearest British troops are now stationed more than 20 miles from the
city, Mr. Muhammadawi said.

At least three police stations and several other state facilities in Amara
were attacked.

The government reacted with hurried efforts to restore order. Mr.
Muhammadawi said he and other tribal leaders tried to intervene, while Mr.
Maliki dispatched a delegation to the area. A message from Mr. Sadr was
broadcast from police cars and ambulances, calling on gunmen to lay down
their weapons, but it appeared to be disregarded, Mr. Muhammadawi said.

Mr. Sadr himself sent a team to Amara from the holy Shiite city of Najaf.

The Associated Press reported that about 800 black-clad militiamen with
Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were patrolling
city streets in commandeered police vehicles.

Some reports said the city was calm today. "

The current US installed President of Iraq is afraid to take on Sadir
because he has significant political control of the Shiite dominated
Ministries and Iraqui Parliament--30 seats to be exact.

CH


"Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eHspAzG9GHA.4964@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> They won't be able to Draft Me, I am 29 Years Old, The Draft Ends at Age
> 25, Just FYI.
>
> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
> news:eb1g7rG9GHA.2364@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> KJP-
>>
>> We all await your comments on November 8, 2006 after the Democrats gain
>> at least subpona power by taking over the control of House Committees
>> with the relocation of speaker Hastert who got caught covering up the
>> page situation as did the Priests and Cardinals in the Church, (which
>> would happen if they did so or not) and on the lost Senate seats by
>> Republicans that will be numerous.
>>
>> Mission has been accomplished in Iraq--but it has been one involving the
>> hemorrhage of $3 billion a week, over 300,000 US troops,hundreds of
>> thousands of deaths of Iraquis, systemic abuse by American companies,
>> nearly 35,000 US troops with permanant systemic neurologic and orthopedic
>> injuries that make normal walking and numerous other daily activities
>> impossible--eyesight being another, and a current quagmire.
>>
>> One of the positive aspects that has emerged is the pending draft for one
>> Kevin Pansky as the national guard grandmother and grandfather deployment
>> runs out of bodies.
>>
>> Killing via Iraq and Afganistan where the Taliban now is in complete
>> control is not limited to the lack of foreign policy, but medicare
>> failure and failure to deploy embryonic stems for diseases like
>> Parkinson's, Diabetes, spinal cord injury, and leukemias and lymphomas to
>> name just a few are what this current President and the abdication of
>> oversight by the Republican controlled Commitees in the House and the
>> Senate have accomplished.
>>
>> You can sum up the accomplishements of this adminstration with the slogan
>> "Death and more death on all fronts."
>>
>> They do death very well and prolifically. I'd start by reading "The
>> Hill" and
>> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/ to supplement what your high school
>> teachers aren't providing in the "No Kevin left behind" model of
>> education that stresses anti-Science, Intelligent Design, in an
>> adminstration whose FDA has been politically driven.
>>
>> I assume you followed the indictment and pending sentencing of the former
>> and recently removed Bush FDA Commissoner, one Lester Crawford a DVM, not
>> an MD by the way from UGA or the University of Jaw Jaw.
>>
>> http://www.fda.gov/oc/crawford/bio.html
>>
>> It's here for your viewing pleasure--how 'bout them dogs and how bout
>> that systemically pathological Republican Cronyism? You can fill a bus
>> now on its way to federal prison with convicted and sentenced Republican
>> Congressmen and former Bush officials and the 465 visits to the white
>> house Jack Abramoff.
>>
>> See:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> October 18, 2006
>> Ex-F.D.A. Chief Pleads Guilty in Stock Case
>> By DAVID STOUT
>> WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 - Lester M. Crawford, the former commissioner of food
>> and drugs, pleaded guilty Tuesday to lying and conflict-of-interest
>> charges in connection with stock he and his wife owned in companies
>> regulated by the F.D.A.
>>
>> Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson, who accepted Dr. Crawford's plea to
>> two misdemeanor charges, scheduled sentencing for Jan. 22 in Federal
>> District Court.
>>
>> Dr. Crawford, 68, could face up to a year in prison and a fine of up to
>> $100,000 on each of the two counts, but his lawyer has said she expects
>> him to be placed on probation.
>>
>> Senior employees of the agency are barred from owning shares in companies
>> it regulates. Dr. Crawford and his wife, Catherine, accordingly sold
>> their holdings in nine companies around the time he became deputy
>> commissioner early in 2002, the government said.
>>
>> But they retained shares in three others: the food giants Sysco and
>> Pepsico, and Kimberly-Clark, which makes consumer health products and
>> other goods.
>>
>> In addition, Mrs. Crawford held shares in another regulated company,
>> Wal-Mart, but her husband did not list them in his 2002 financial
>> disclosure.
>>
>> In addition, Dr. Crawford, who is a veterinarian and pharmacologist,
>> exercised options to buy shares in a poultry biotechnology company
>> regulated by the Food and Drug Administration in 2003 and 2004, earning
>> almost $30,000 altogether. He did not list them in disclosure filings, as
>> he should have, even though he properly reported the transactions on his
>> tax returns, the government said.
>>
>> The conflict-of-interest charges stemmed from the Crawfords' ownership of
>> shares in Pepsico and Sysco while he was chairman of the Obesity Working
>> Group at the F.D.A., which was reviewing calorie-content labeling for
>> soft drinks.
>>
>> There is no evidence that the obesity group's conclusions were altered
>> because of the Crawfords' ownership of stock, Howard Sklamberg, an
>> assistant United States attorney, told Judge Robinson.
>>
>> Mrs. Crawford's brother, William W. Walker III of Birmingham, Ala., said
>> his sister had told him "if they had to do it over again, they'd put
>> everything in a blind trust."
>>
>>
>> I'd say that makes Monica and the trumped up Whitewater charges look like
>> a walk in the park.
>>
>> CH
>>
>> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:e%23juQhG9GHA.2268@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>> P.S. I will be Voting a Straight Republican Ticket on November 7th,
>>> 2006
>>> (so that those Pesky Darn Democrat's Can't take over the House and
>>> Senate,
>>> and so that they can't try to Impeach President George W. Bush), I
>>> Support
>>> President George W. Bush and Alberto Gonzales (USDOJ) 100%, Just FYI.
>>>
>>> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:ei1JdYG9GHA.4860@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>>I was referring to the Lawsuits Against Microsoft, They (the Lawsuits)
>>>>are
>>>>Complete Utter Non-Sence, Just FYI!
>>>>
>>>> P.S. Windows Vista is 100% Ready for RTM on October 25th, 2006, Just
>>>> FYI!
>>>>
>>>> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
>>>> news:O8uiQRG9GHA.4708@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Except that she's counsel for EFF who have won a number of suits
>>>>> against
>>>>> the US DOJ and little Kevin doesn't know if he can get into a college
>>>>> let
>>>>> alone a law school at this juncture.
>>>>>
>>>>> CH
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> "Kevin John Panzke" <kevpan815@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:eHhTjdD9GHA.3960@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Complete Non-Sense!
>>>>> "Chad Harris" <Vista RTM is really Beta 1.net> wrote in message
>>>>> news:%23krctO$8GHA.3344@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Perhaps the Red Queen is MSFT Deputy General Counsel Nancy Anderson.
>>>>> But one thing you're good at Nancy is becoming a magnet for litigation
>>>>> that you lose baby!
>>>>>
>>>>> Anderson, VP Brad Smith, Senior Vice President, General Counsel,
>>>>> Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs and their eager girls
>>>>> and
>>>>> boys are hemorrhaging a lot of MSFT stockholder money every time the
>>>>> elicit and answer an exponentially growing number of lawsuits
>>>>> involving
>>>>> Vista. The legal vista for them has become one gaping money
>>>>> hemorhhage.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> October 19, 2006
>>>>> "Forbidding Vistas: Windows licensing disserves the user "
>>>>>
>>>>> http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archiv..._the_user.html
>>>>>
>>>>> by Wendy Selzer, EFF Staff Attorney
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.eff.org/
>>>>> Reading the Windows Vista license is a bit like preparing for
>>>>> breakfast with Lewis Carroll's Red Queen: You should be ready to
>>>>> believe
>>>>> at least six impossible things about what users want from software.
>>>>>
>>>>> It is unlikely that a home user looking for a computer operating
>>>>> system
>>>>> has any of these "features" of the Vista EULA in mind:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1.. Self-limiting software
>>>>> 2.. Vanishing functionality through invalidation
>>>>> 3.. Removal of media capabilities
>>>>> 4.. Problem-solving prohibited
>>>>> 5.. Limited mobility
>>>>> 6.. One transfer only
>>>>> and a bonus,
>>>>> 7.. Restrictions on your rights to use MPEG-4 video
>>>>>
>>>>> Details below. While Microsoft should be commended for putting its
>>>>> license into plain English, that doesn't help to make the license
>>>>> restrictions any more palatable. Quoted italicized language comes from
>>>>> the Vista license.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. Self-limiting software, or Mandatory Activation. "Your right to
>>>>> use
>>>>> the software after the time specified in the installation process is
>>>>> limited unless it is activated. . You will not be able to continue
>>>>> using
>>>>> the software after that time if you do not activate it." Moreover,
>>>>> "[s]ome changes to your computer components or the software may
>>>>> require
>>>>> you to reactivate the software." In order to use Microsoft Vista, you
>>>>> must consent to communication to Microsoft of information about the
>>>>> software and the device on which you have installed it. If you don't
>>>>> do
>>>>> so in time, your software will begin to degrade in function.
>>>>>
>>>>> 2. Vanishing functionality through invalidation. "The software will
>>>>> from
>>>>> time to time validate the software, update or require download of the
>>>>> validation feature of the software. . [if validation fails] you may
>>>>> not
>>>>> be able to use or continue to use some of the features of the
>>>>> software."
>>>>> Again, your computer must make periodic (period unspecified) contact
>>>>> with
>>>>> the Microsoft mothership if you want to continue to enjoy what you
>>>>> thought you paid for. Microsoft, of course, disclaims any liability
>>>>> for
>>>>> the consequences if their servers fail or mistakenly deny you
>>>>> validation.
>>>>>
>>>>> 3. Removal of media capabilities. "When you download licenses for
>>>>> protected content, you agree that Microsoft may include a revocation
>>>>> list
>>>>> with the licenses." "[C]ontent owners may ask Microsoft to revoke the
>>>>> software's ability to use WMDRM [Windows Media digital rights
>>>>> management]
>>>>> to play or copy protected content." In other words, one movie or music
>>>>> file may take away your ability to play another, if the content owner
>>>>> (not the computer owner) chooses to cut back the Windows Media
>>>>> Player's
>>>>> features. Don't like the reports that Creative is removing radio
>>>>> recording functions from its MP3 players, under music industry
>>>>> pressure?
>>>>> Prepare for that kind of feature flux to be routine in Vista -- you've
>>>>> agreed to it in the license.
>>>>>
>>>>> 4. Problem-solving prohibited. "You may not work around any technical
>>>>> limitations in the software." Microsoft might be referring to
>>>>> anticircumvention of technical protection measures here, but since
>>>>> it's
>>>>> often hard to tell the difference, from the user's perspective,
>>>>> between a
>>>>> TPM and a bug, this reads as a prohibition on user debugging and
>>>>> problem-solving. After all, down-rezzing HD content or refusing to
>>>>> allow
>>>>> users to copy quotes from an e-book don't strike most people as wanted
>>>>> features. Can you work around a document's failure to save properly?
>>>>>
>>>>> 5. Limited mobility. "The first user of the software may reassign the
>>>>> license to another device one time." If you upgrade your machines more
>>>>> frequently than you care to change operating systems, you'll just have
>>>>> to
>>>>> pay again. Don't worry about this applying too frequently, though,
>>>>> because most OEMs will probably keep bundling Windows with their
>>>>> hardware, thanks to Microsoft's pricing encouragement, and Microsoft
>>>>> won't offer refunds if you don't like the terms on those OEM bundles.
>>>>>
>>>>> 6. One transfer only. "The first user of the software may make a one
>>>>> time transfer of the software, and this agreement, directly to a third
>>>>> party.. [T]he other party must agree that this agreement applies to
>>>>> the
>>>>> transfer and use of the software." You can give your old computer to
>>>>> Dad,
>>>>> but if he wants to give his older computer to the neighborhood
>>>>> community
>>>>> center, they'll have to find their own operating system (may I
>>>>> recommend
>>>>> Ubuntu?).
>>>>>
>>>>> Bonus. MPEG-4 Visual Standard
>>>>>
>>>>> NOTICE ABOUT THE MPEG-4 VISUAL STANDARD. This software includes
>>>>> MPEG-4
>>>>> visual decoding technology. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:
>>>>> USE OF THIS PRODUCT IN ANY MANNER THAT COMPLIES WITH THE MPEG-4
>>>>> VISUAL
>>>>> STANDARD IS PROHIBITED, EXCEPT FOR USE DIRECTLY RELATED TO (A) DATA OR
>>>>> INFORMATION (i) GENERATED BY AND OBTAINED WITHOUT CHARGE FROM A
>>>>> CONSUMER
>>>>> NOT THEREBY ENGAGED IN A BUSINESS ENTERPRISE, AND (ii) FOR PERSONAL
>>>>> USE
>>>>> ONLY; AND (B) OTHER USES SPECIFICALLY AND SEPARATELY LICENSED BY MPEG
>>>>> LA,
>>>>> L.L.C.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Users never asked for these impossible limitations. Microsoft decided
>>>>> unilaterally to add them, claiming it could abrogate personal
>>>>> ownership,
>>>>> fair use, and first sale rights because "The software is licensed, not
>>>>> sold." If Microsoft faced real market competition on the home desktop,
>>>>> users could vote with their wallets, but anticompetitive practices and
>>>>> network effects make Microsoft a like-it-or-not proposition for most
>>>>> users.
>>>>>
>>>>> While Carroll's Humpty Dumpty might have been able to choose the
>>>>> meanings of his words at will, on this side of the looking glass,
>>>>> software vendors shouldn't be able to redefine the meaning of "buying
>>>>> software" by the simple attachment of a click-wrap license."
>>>>>
>>>>> CH
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>