Blog: Pete Loshin

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Microsoft Vista EULA Concerns

It's too bad that "clickwrap" end user license agreements have become the de facto standard for commercial software licensing. It's just too easy to get away with outrageous demands on customers.

Anyway, the good people at SecurityFocus are keeping an eye on things for us.

First off, there's Scott Granneman's piece, Surprises Inside Microsoft Vista's EULA. What's interesting is that after Scott (and the others he mentions in his column) uncovered the dirty dealing, Microsoft went back and changed their EULA to take out some of the worst bits--but not all of them.

Scott goes into some of the interesting issues about Microsoft's six different Vista versions, as well as how the EULA deals with virtualization. It's not good. But I really liked what Scott has to say about licensing in general:

"I had the adults in "Technology in Our Changing Society" read both the Windows XP EULA and the GNU General Public License. When I asked them what they thought, one woman said, "The EULA sounds like it was written by a team of lawyers who want to tell me what I can't do, and the GPL sounds like it was written by a human being who wants me to know what I can do." Nice.

Then, check out Mark Rasch on Vista's EULA Product Activation Worries. He cuts right to the chase, pointing out that Vista's EULA allows Microsoft to:

...unilaterally decide that you have breached the terms of the agreement, and they can essentially disable the software, and possibly deny you access to critical files on your computer without benefit of proof, hearing, testimony or judicial intervention. In fact, if Microsoft is wrong, and your software is, in fact, properly licensed, you probably will be forced to buy a license to another copy of the operating system from Microsoft just to be able to get access to your files, and then you can sue Microsoft for the original license fee. Even then, you wont be able to get any damages from Microsoft, and may not even be able to get the cost of the first license back.

There's lots more about how Microsoft goes about deciding whether or not you are in complance with the agreement, and what can happen if they do. So check it out!

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