[IP] more on Genuine Advantage lawsuit
Begin forwarded message:
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 29, 2006 3:14:40 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: lauren@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Genuine Advantage lawsuit
Dave,
Both "What is Spyware" issues and EULA consent issues are complex.
In this case, Microsoft has admitted that they should have noted
the WGA connection behavior in the original EULA, and that not
doing so was a mistake.
(See http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000178.html for my original
discussion of WGA "phone home" behavior, and later linked
blog entries).
I do not feel that the WGA download in question should have been in
the normal Windows Update cycle -- especially given its "prerelease"
status. And I believe that the manner in which the original
EULA/consent form was displayed left a great deal to be desired
(unfortunately, this has become all too common among various
vendors, and most people tend to click right through without reading
the details). *Informed* consent issues are indeed vital.
However, I am very unenthusiastic about this kind of litigation in a
case where the actual damage done (compared with destructive or
personal information stealing spyware sneaked onto systems by
crooks) is very low. We risk diverting our attention from the
bigger picture.
We should instead be concentrating our efforts on a broad discussion
of computer users' rights to control their systems, vs. how far vendors
should be allowed to go in their laudable goal of preventing
piracy. This is especially important when "innocents" may find
themselves sucked into the maelstrom of anti-piracy efforts.
We need to keep our eyes on the ball.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@xxxxxxxxxx or lauren@xxxxxxxx
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
- International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com
- - -
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Aleecia M. McDonald" <aleecia@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 29, 2006 11:31:55 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Genuine Advantage lawsuit
For IP if you wish.
A suit filed in Seattle court claims that Genuine Advantage is
spyware, and denied users the ability to make informed consent. Note
the carefully phrased denial from Microsoft:
"Spyware is deceptive software that is installed on a user's
computer without the user's consent and has some malicious purpose,"
I've looked at a lot of definitions of spyware, and "some malicious
purpose" is an interesting addition.
Lauren Weinstein appears to believe that consent is not at issue, but
rather the degree of damage:
"It doesn't seem to me that this particular incident rises anywhere
near the kind of damage that is normally associated with spyware,"
said Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People for Internet
Responsibility. "That's not to say that Microsoft should have done it
the way they did. ... But that doesn't necessarily make it
illegal." [ellipses in original text]
Full article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/
275780_msftsuit29.html?source=mypi
One of my concerns is that, politically, it is difficult to pass
Federal legislation that bans Microsoft's standard business
practices. It's been hard enough to approach a working definition of
spyware (see the good work of CDT's Anti-Spyware Coalition.)
Codifying what is, or isn't, spyware just got a whole lot more
difficult.
Aleecia
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