usa visa: InfoWorld: Reader Voices: Genuine Windows Discord

THE GRIPE LINE: ED FOSTER http://www.infoworld.com/ Tuesday, March 22, 2005

IN THIS ISSUE

* Reader Voices: Genuine Windows Discord * Privacy Surrender Palmed Off As Support * An Evergreen Brink's Heist

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READER VOICES: GENUINE WINDOWS DISCORD

One thing for sure is that my readers don't lack for opinions, particularly when it comes to Microsoft. In fact, responses to my recent story ( http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601BC:353CA35 ) about the Windows Genuine Advantage validation requirement were so varied I think we need to run a quick poll to see what consensus there is.

Many theories abounded on what lies behind Microsoft's decision to require validation for future XP updates. "This isn't about piracy," wrote one reader. "It's about training users of Microsoft's products to expect product validation. First it's just for downloading enhancements. The next step is to run validation each time Windows or another MS product is started. Once users become accustomed to that routine, it's a short jump to making people pay for their software on a per use basis. Microsoft wants that kind of recurring revenue."

Many others, however, felt Microsoft was perfectly justified in trying to discourage piracy this way. "I don't believe that Microsoft is blaming their customers," wrote another reader. "I believe they are trying to convince people to buy legitimate software from a legit business and move away from buying pirated software from some fly by night business operating on the Internet. Maybe when their software shuts down, people will learn that you get what you pay for. Don't be a dough head. Purchase real software from people who work hard to create it. I'm sure that you wouldn't want someone obtaining your life's work for free."

Some expressed concern about the security implications of Windows users finding it harder to get updates. "If 25 percent or more of Windows cannot be updated, it's that many more machines open to virus/Trojan infections that turn them into viral spreading machines," wrote another reader. "These updates are primarily to repair defects in the original release of the software -- defects which should not have been present in the first place. Imagine if you had to bring your car in to the dealer once a month for 'updates.'"

Still others actually welcomed the opportunity to find out whether their software was legitimate. "It's far too easy for a shady company to sell an organization 10 new computers with only one legal license of Windows or without a legal license at all," a reader wrote. "I work for an organization which paid for a vendor to come in and install a Windows XP upgrade on roughly 10 or 15 computers. I found out when I tried to upgrade the computers to Service Pack 2 that we don't have a real Windows XP CD ROM, just a burned copy, and we don't have a Certificate of Authenticity. I am very grateful that Microsoft wrote Service Pack 2 so that it won't install on those computers because now I know that I need to buy the necessary licenses and make sure that we're legal so that if we're audited we have only legal software running on our computers. I'm just glad that I found the problem before someone did an audit of our ...

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601BF:353CA35

PRIVACY SURRENDER PALMED OFF AS SUPPORT

Want a little support for your Palm handheld? One reader recently discovered that PalmOne was happy to provide him very, very, very little support indeed, and at the mere cost of his privacy.

"My laptop crashed, and I discovered that I'd lost my original PalmOne installation CD," the reader wrote. Unable to find the Outlook conduits on the PalmOne website, he used their e-mail support form ( http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601C2:353CA35 ) to ask where he could find the conduits for download. "The reply came back that the Outlook conduits could not be downloaded from the website. However, they would graciously allow me to contact the PalmOne telephone technical support to purchase another CD."

Not only was that not the biggest help, the reader noticed something that irritated him even more. "To add insult to injury, to get this e-mail 'support' I had to agree to accept spam coming from them," the reader wrote. "At the bottom of the web form that one uses to send them e-mail, it says:

By clicking 'submit' you agree to be contacted by palmOne, Inc. for support as well as marketing purposes and acknowledge your rights as part of our Privacy Policy." That Palm privacy policy ( http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601C1:353CA35 ), in fact, is ...

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601BD:353CA35

AN EVERGREEN BRINK'S HEIST

How far can a vendor go in enforcing unfair contract terms? I don't know, but it appears that at least one company, Brink's Home Security ( http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601C4:353CA35 ), thinks it can use the "evergreen clause" in its contract to financially punish any customer who threatens to go to a competitor.

A Florida resident whom I will dub Mrs. House has been a customer of Brink's home monitoring service for over eight years. "I think I had called them four or five times total over the years, mainly just to check the system," Mrs. House says about the service, for which she paid $30 a month. "But the last time I called it was because we were having a lot of false alarms." She was informed the alarm system wiring for some of her window screens had gone bad and would require some expensive re-wiring not covered by her "Platinum Service" maintenance plan.

As she and her husband had been planning on re-modeling their home anyway, they ultimately decided to cancel the service. "When I called to cancel, that's when I found out about Brink's 'evergreen clause,'" Mrs. House says. The contract she had signed eight years ago was, as she ...

http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601BE:353CA35

Contact Ed Foster at Foster@gripe2ed.com .

Ed Foster's "Reader Advocate" column, http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601C0:353CA35 , can be read exclusively at his GripeLog Web site: http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=C601C7:353CA35

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