[conspire] A bit more on that "worm"

[Don Marti]

begin barton quotation of Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 11:48:46AM -0800:
> I think the biggest problem is the EULA's are not the right place for
> messages about loading UNWANTED software on ones machine. This type of
> invasive activity should be very visible not hidden in some unreadable
> legal jargon that is five or six pages long. License agreements have
> gotten entirely out of control -- and ridiculous. No one reads them
> because most of the time they make no sense and are probably not
> enforceable in the long run.

Visible, kind of like a TRUSTe.org for client-side
software?

TRUSTe.org has been around since 1997 and they now
have 1446 web sites signed up.

Free software will probably get user interfaces right
before proprietary software gets legal interfaces
right.  Then this won't be a problem.

By the way, recent court cases are leaning in the
direction of making clickwrap EULAs enforceable.
http://madisonian.net/archives/2005/09/02/eula-developments/

> I guess the problem is that companies will not be ethical if they don't
> have to be. If there is a buck in the deal they will too often convince
> themselves that it is okay to do things that are less than up-front and
> ethical. I think it is past time that some laws be passed to help
> companies decide and understand what is right and what is wrong.

Like the CAN-SPAM act -- watered down by online
marketers to the point of uselessness?  I wouldn't
rely on the law here, since the proprietary software
companies are likely to introduce exceptions to let
them do what they want.

-- 
Don Marti
http://zgp.org/~dmarti/
dmarti at zgp.org