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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
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Dangerous Terms in MS Vista's EULA. Before clicking the "I Agree" button that accompanies software products' dense End User License Agreements (EULA), it's always best to check with Infoworld's Ed Foster first. He is unrelenting in his careful criticisms of EULAs, and, this week, he takes on a section of Microsoft Vista's EULA that aims to stifle the speech of product reviewers and critics. He writes:
"[I]f Microsoft has the right to put even the mildest of restrictions on a consumer's rights to comment on their products, why can't a carmaker or an appliance manufacturer have a censorship clause hidden somewhere on their website? There is nothing is copyright law that gives software publishers the right to restrict the rights of their customers to criticize their products."
Last week, Brooklyn Law School Professor and former EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer highlighted a number of other dangerous terms in Vista's EULA. For a user's guide to EULAs, read EFF's white paper. [EFF: Deep Links]
11:16:32 PM 
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T-Mobile USA is tapping into home broadband to give cellular customers a better deal.
Subscribers
to a new service from the Seattle-based mobile operator will be able to
make unlimited U.S. calls via Wi-Fi at home and on Wi-Fi networks that
don't require a password. Using the same phone, they can leave the
range of the Wi-Fi network and keep talking without an interruption as
the call shifts over to the T-Mobile cellular network.
4:21:26 PM
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Carl Bialik from WSJ writes, "Security company Unisys is taking niche marketing to a new level,
aiming ads at about 20 top executives, delivering custom-covered issues
of their Fortune magazine subscriptions, and even placing billboards
where these individuals will be likely to see them, the Wall Street
Journal reports." ---- From the article: "If an executive flips over
the mock Fortune cover, he or she will discover a letter -- also
individually tailored -- from a senior Unisys manager describing
challenges in the target's specific industry. The Fortune 'cover wraps'
also offer personalized Web addresses, where the executives can find
mock news videos that mention their names and tell how they achieved
business success. To reinforce the message, Unisys is placing
billboards and outdoor signs -- albeit without information-chief
portraits -- close to the executives' offices. Some ads will even
appear on video screens in the elevators of their office buildings."Carl Bialik from WSJ writes, "Security company Unisys is taking niche marketing to a new level,
aiming ads at about 20 top executives, delivering custom-covered issues
of their Fortune magazine subscriptions, and even placing billboards
where these individuals will be likely to see them, the Wall Street
Journal reports." ---- From the article: "If an executive flips over
the mock Fortune cover, he or she will discover a letter -- also
individually tailored -- from a senior Unisys manager describing
challenges in the target's specific industry. The Fortune 'cover wraps'
also offer personalized Web addresses, where the executives can find
mock news videos that mention their names and tell how they achieved
business success. To reinforce the message, Unisys is placing
billboards and outdoor signs -- albeit without information-chief
portraits -- close to the executives' offices. Some ads will even
appear on video screens in the elevators of their office buildings."
3:56:55 PM
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Carl Bialik from WSJ writes, "Security company Unisys is taking niche marketing to a new level,
aiming ads at about 20 top executives, delivering custom-covered issues
of their Fortune magazine subscriptions, and even placing billboards
where these individuals will be likely to see them, the Wall Street
Journal reports." ---- From the article: "If an executive flips over
the mock Fortune cover, he or she will discover a letter -- also
individually tailored -- from a senior Unisys manager describing
challenges in the target's specific industry. The Fortune 'cover wraps'
also offer personalized Web addresses, where the executives can find
mock news videos that mention their names and tell how they achieved
business success. To reinforce the message, Unisys is placing
billboards and outdoor signs -- albeit without information-chief
portraits -- close to the executives' offices. Some ads will even
appear on video screens in the elevators of their office buildings."
3:56:23 PM
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Copps and Gonzalez spoke at last week's town hall meeting in New York
on diversity and media ownership. The FCC is reconsidering a number of
broadcast rules -including whether a single company should be able to
own both a newspaper and television station in the same market.
[includes rush transcript]
A town hall meeting on diversity and media ownership was held last
week here in New York City. All five commissioners from the Federal
Communications Commission were invited. Only two showed up -
Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. More than 300
activists and citizens came out to show their opposition to further
media consolidation as the FCC reconsiders a number of broadcast rules
- including whether a single company should be able to own both a
newspaper and television station in the same market.
- Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner.
- Juan Gonzalez, Daily News columnist and Democracy Now co-host.
3:44:02 PM
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A LOT of business travelers are walking around with laptops that
contain private corporate information that their employers really do
not want outsiders to see. Until recently, their biggest
concern was that someone might steal the laptop. But now there's a new
worry -- that the laptop will be seized or its contents scrutinized at
United States customs and immigration checkpoints upon entering the United States from abroad. Although
much of the evidence for the confiscations remains anecdotal, it's a
hot topic this week among more than 1,000 corporate travel managers and
travel industry officials meeting in Barcelona at a conference of the
Association of Corporate Travel Executives. Last week, an
informal survey by the association, which has about 2,500 members
worldwide, indicated that almost 90 percent of its members were not
aware that customs officials have the authority to scrutinize the
contents of travelers' laptops and even confiscate laptops for a period
of time, without giving a reason. "One member who responded to
our survey said she has been waiting for a year to get her laptop and
its contents back," said Susan Gurley, the group's executive director.
"She said it was randomly seized. And since she hasn't been arrested, I
assume she was just a regular business traveler, not a criminal." Appeals
are under way in some cases, but the law is clear. "They don't need
probable cause to perform these searches under the current law. They
can do it without suspicion or without really revealing their
motivations," said Tim Kane, a Washington lawyer who is researching the
matter for corporate clients. In some cases, random inspections
of laptops have yielded evidence of possession of child pornography.
Laptops may be scrutinized and subject to a "forensic analysis" under
the so-called border search exemption, which allows searches of people
entering the United States and their possessions "without probable
cause, reasonable suspicion or a warrant," a federal court ruled in
July. In that case, a man's laptop was found to have child pornography
images on its hard drive.
3:32:07 PM
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An anonymous reader writes, "According to an article in the New
York Times, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives is asking
the U.S. government for more detailed guidelines on when and why a laptop gets confiscated at the U.S. border,
which, anecdotally, is happening more often. The story includes a
report from a business traveler who had her laptop confiscated over a
year ago and has yet to have it returned." According to the
article, a knowledgeable lawyer said: "[Border guards] don't need
probable cause to perform... searches under the current law. They can
do it without suspicion or without really revealing their motivations."
And an ACTE exective is quoted, "Potentially, this is going to have a
real effect on how international business is conducted."
3:29:10 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Paul Hardwick.
Last update: 11/10/06; 2:11:23 AM.
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