[KLUG Advocacy] XP SP1

[Robert G. Brown]

Adam Willaims <adam@morrison-ind.com> wrote:
>If you thought the XP EULA was bad....
Nah, it's not "bad", in some cases (like whole industries and sets of
applications) this is just an absolute show-stopper.

>Product Activation post SP1 transmits your product key to Redmond, 
>where they can "validate" it and accept or decline permission to use
>updates, etc...
This has been well-known for some time.

>It installs "technological measures that are designed to prevent 
>unlicensed use."
Well, it's a bit more extensive than that. In essense you are granting
MS the right to enter your system and disable any software installed 
thereon, and [I beleive] the are held harmless from any consequences.

This is simply unacceptable in any application where the configuration of
the host is certified to consist of known componets (or sets of components)
and tested to qualify its behavior and performance.

BTW, this is not confined to MS, or XP, but nearly any production platform
that has some form of self-updating mechanism.

Consider for a moment some application where the system in question is 
doing something like measuring chemical or pharmacuetical potency, pro-
viding some environmental control. These systems are qualified and/or
certified in accordance with testing and certification protocols that 
(among other things) require a documented and static configuration as 
of the certification date. Change often requires a change control pro-
cedure, which is specified as part of the certification process and often 
includes testing.

All of this "auto-update" stuff short-cicuits this kind of rigorous 
system maintenance, and places the administrator in the position of not
really knowing what the configuration is if [when] something adverse 
haapens. This can be **very** serious [human lives have been lost over
this kind of error].

Signing this into a licence is... I can't think of the words... perhaps 
criminal negligence covers it, but I'm not certain.

							Regards,
							---> RGB <---