A recent link was submitted to Topsight regarding a Microsoft boycott. The site say’s “If you have to re-install Windows or the software because of a virus, a hardware failure or some other cause, you have to contact Microsoft again and explain why you need their permission to re-install the software. If they don't like your explanation, and in particular if they do not get your name, address, phone number, and E-mail address, you are out of luck — you must buy another copy of Office XP.”
From personal experience (many crashes and re-installs) I can tell you that this is not true, windows XP makes a hash of your system and mathematically combines that hash with a given serial number so that the software can only be used on the original computer, you can reinstall it as many times as you’d like. Microsoft is pretty open about their licensing agreements and after all there are alternatives to Windows(Linux, Freebsd, OSX).
“I would list all the laws Microsoft is breaking with the XP series, but that would require more space than your computer has memory. Here are some highlights:
• Presumption of guilt. Under American law, a person is assumed to be innocent until proven guilty. The XP system assumes a criminal intent, which is a violation of constitutional law, and then the software acts on this assumption, a power normally reserved to the police, which is an additional violation of law.
[Microsoft is not a judicial system, they’re merely selling a product that’s much more difficult to copy/pirate, a company has every right to protect it’s assets from theft and you’re not forced to buy Windows or Office]
• Prior restraint. This idea, basically acting to prevent a crime before it is committed, is a very delicate issue in constitutional law, and because of the potential for abuse, it is rarely permitted. Absent evidence of probable cause, it is never permitted. Because there are legitimate reasons to do things not permitted by the XP software, Microsoft is engaging in prior restraint, and is thus breaking the law.
[Again, Microsoft is not a judicial law making/enforcing system, with older Microsoft operating system such as Windows 98 their licensing agreements did not allow you to install software for which you held a single license for on multiple computers, the problem back then was that their was no way to enforce this license agreement.]
• Misrepresentation. In commerce, there are a set of assumptions about an item that is offered for sale. To put it simply, a consumer item is assumed to be suitable for its stated purpose, and this is implicit — offering the item for sale creates some assumptions that, if they turn out not to be true, are actionable. The XP software series very simply is not what it seems to be — a set of computer programs meant to serve the consumer's needs. This is false — XP only serves Microsoft's needs.
[Millions of people use windows, it’s assumed Microsoft windows has many bugs, if windows XP only served Microsoft’s needs the product would not sell, not unlike the automotive world were crappy cars makers go out of business]
• Surveillance. By setting itself up as a moral judge of how people use their software, by micro-managing how people choose to use the XP programs, Microsoft has put into place the most insidious system of spying ever conceived in modern times. Once a consumer has experienced any version of modern-day reality — a virus that requires the software to be re-installed, one person with two computers, or who buys a new computer, or who wants to sell or donate the XP software to a third party — however these events turn out, Microsoft gets every detail, along with all your personal information. If XP comes to full flower, Microsoft will know more about you than the US Government knows or ever imagined knowing.”
[When you sell a car the manufacture knows, the government knows, and every time that car is resold the manufacture and the government are both notified again. Microsoft doesn’t judge how you use it’s software, their only concern is that people aren’t pirating and stealing their products all of which is very legal, If GM or Ford’s car’s were reverse engineered and plans put on the internet for any one to build their own car, their would be hell pay. You would be stealing those companies intellectual property. How is this any different then what Microsoft does?]
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