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Sun Baked

macrumors G5
May 19, 2002
14,941
162
I thought the test marketing of Office software leasing failed in it's test market (Australia).

But this hardware/software checking would definitely allow leased software, which is Microsoft's preferred model.

Fail to pay that monthly toll, and the PC grinds to a halt. Become late enough in the payments and the software removes itself from your computer.

Oh what fun...
 

Stike

macrumors 65816
Jan 31, 2002
1,017
17
Germany
OMG! This is just terrible! If this would ever come true, corporations will dominate our lives!!! DANGER!!! This is dangerous! Practices described in this FAQ are completely illegal! They are against the freedom of the individual. Terrible.

In Germany, something like this is against the constitution! It will never come true, and if it would, I´d go and live somewhere in the rainforest with the apes...
 

BongHits

macrumors regular
May 2, 2002
181
0
chicago
it looks like i might be stuck with a 933 and os x 10.2 (assuming apple goes this route) until this whole digital piracy thing blows over (which will be quite awhile considering how much music corp's have in the bank) all i know is the best way to defeat ms and intels plans on stoppin us is by NOT BUYING their product...who would have ever thought it could be so simple...than again the ratio of idiots to people with common sense in this world is quite disturbing.
 

uhlawboi80

macrumors 6502
Sep 8, 2002
350
0
houston
wow...i just read the entire article, and YIKES. thats a pretty freaky reality. If that system actually comes to be...i may just live without their "certified" programs and just run something like linux.

though i do have my doubts about this... i have read several articles about various governments (including the US) demanding open source software and threatening microsoft that they will switch to something like linux so they can have their own tech people look for security holes and patch them or modify programs as needed.

who knows for sure...but this is not turning into a futire i want to have.
 

Kethoticus

macrumors 6502
Original poster
We need to let our reps know how we feel.

I've already emailed my senators and representative. And they're all Democrats, which in this case, might prove to be advantageous. But either way, we need to let our elected officials know how we feel about this, because they have the power to stop it.
 

Gelfin

macrumors 68020
Sep 18, 2001
2,165
5
Denver, CO
You know what, this would be a wonderful value for me as a user. I also want Volkswagen to be able to decide where I'm authorized to drive my car, and to be able to decide how fast is safe independently of local speed limits. I mean, they built the car, they should be able to decide where and how it should be used, especially if I were leasing. So they should definitely be able to monitor everything I do with my car and to automatically kill the engine or take control and drive my car back to someplace "safe". And if I insist on trying to thwart them, they should be able to have my car automatically return to the dealer so I can't abuse them anymore.

It'll be so nice to have a car I can trust.
 

chmorley

macrumors 6502a
Jan 2, 2002
602
2
Denver, CO
Not new

News of this has been around for months now (which, of course, doesn't make it any less scary).

Here is a great ZDNet article on the subject.

This is the good thing about markets. If enough people become upset about this and decide they don't want it, the market will favor another company.

This isn't written in stone yet. Not at all.

Chris
 

RogueLdr

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2002
119
0
People's Republic of Ann Arbor
Re: Not new

Originally posted by chmorley
This is the good thing about markets. If enough people become upset about this and decide they don't want it, the market will favor another company.

This isn't written in stone yet. Not at all.

Chris

The problem comes when SOME people or companies go ahead and upgrade, which would then require their clients , collaborators, and colleagues to have the upgraded version of the software to be able to use files created on the first person's computer. From here the possibility of snowballing adoption of this attrocity becomes very real.

RL
 
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