LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Adam W <woja@optushome.com.au>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 13:11:38 -0800

FWD: Disposal fees for unsolicited ads on new computers

I thought this would give a smile to some people :}

----- Original Message -----
From: "Declan McCullagh" <declan@well.com>
To: <politech@politechbot.com>
Cc: <mann@eecg.toronto.edu>; <notheft@microsoft.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 6:45 AM
Subject: FC: Disposal fees for unsolicited ads on new computers, by Steve
Mann


>
> **********
>
> Subject: disposal fees for unsolicited advertising on new computers
> From: Steve Mann <mann@eecg.toronto.edu>
> To: declan@well.com
> Cc: gnu@toad.com
> Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2001 03:52:07 -0500
>
>  > (3) She also sent a "Microsoft Word" document as an attachment.
>  > Reading such documents requires proprietary software that the reader
>  > must pay Bill Gates for.  The reason we have communication standards
>  > (like the Internet RFC 822 that defines the format of email messages)
>  > is so that one vendor can't lock us in and require us to pay them in
>  > order to communicate with others.  If Rep. Eshoo isn't a believer in
>  > monopoly, she should communicate in public standards rather than
>  > proprietary formats.
>
>
> On a related topic, I find it objectionable that my new computers have
> been vandalized with various stickers and unsolicited markings inside
> and out.  Perhaps this viewpoint would be of interest to your email list.
>
> Here is a letter I addressed to an email address at the site of one
> of these unsolicited markings on the outside of my new computer, together
> with their well-thought-out reply:
>
>
> From: Steve Mann <mann@eecg.toronto.edu>
> To: notheft@microsoft.com
> Subject: Vandalism of informatic property (unsolocited advertising+virus)
> Cc: mann@eecg.toronto.edu
> Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 06:16:29 -0500
>
> Recently I purchased four new computers, and I requested that they be
> shipped with no operating system, because we develop our own software
> in my lab, and we have a policy against using Closed Source software or
> operating systems.  Therefore, we would expect blank hard drives.
>
> However, all four of my new computers appear to have been contaminated
> with informatic detritus of some kind, which appears to include
> an unsolicited advertisement.  In particular the word "Windows",
> which appears to be a trademark of your corporation, appears on each
> of my computers when booted.
>
> Presently, we are posting a copy of this waste material to our main WWW
> server to seek advice from the computer science community as a whole,
> on how best to dispose of it, as well as advice on what fee would be
> reasonable for us to charge for its disposal.
>
> We are also seeking advice from the community, and hoping that other
> scientists can analyze these waste products to confirm their origin,
> as well as give us advice on how best to decontaminate our systems,
> and to obtain three independent quotations for having this unwanted
> material verifiably removed from our computers.
>
> Since the hard drives in question are each approximately 40 gigabytes,
> and the best way for us to make this waste matter available to other
> scientists for analysis has been to "dd" the entire hard drive contents
> to our WWW site, this requires considerable space on our main file
> server that supports or WWW server.
>
> Accordingly, we seek a storage fee for this waste matter, until such
> time as we can collect sufficient opinions on how best to dispose of it,
> and to ensure that it has not adversely affected any of our computers,
> as well as how best to ensure that new computers we order in the future
> are not similarly contaminated.
>
> Any advice you can provide on the nature of this waste product would
> be greatly appreciated, especially if it might expedite the analysis
> so that we can free up the 160 gigabytes of space on our WWW server
> that the samples occupy.
>
> The unsolicited message displayed on the screens seem to partly match
> a sticker that was found on the side of each computer reading "Windows
> 2000 Professional 1-2 CPU Certificiate of Authenticity".
>
> It might seem, therefore, that your corporation would be the
> corporation responsible for contamination of my computers with
> this waste product, virus, or unsolicited advertising material.
>
> Please advise if your company can assume blame for this deliberate
> vandalism of my new computer, or if this was an accidental act and
> merely a result of negligence on the part of your company.
>
> I would welcome your comments on what fee you feel might be
> reasonable fee for disposing of this material, and how long we should
> need to keep it publically available on our WWW server for reasonable
> analysis.
>
> I am sending to this email address because this is the address that
> I find from visiting the WWW site that appears on the unsolicited
> stickers attached to the outsides of my new computers.
>
> I will also be scanning the surfaces of my computers and posting copies
> of these stickers to the WWW in order to obtain a quote for having
> them removed from the outsides of my computers and having the housings
> cleaned.
>
> If you can advise on a removal process for these unsolicited
> advertising stickers, or what you feel you might be willing
> to pay as a reasonable fee for their removal, please advise.
>
>
>
> Dr. S. Mann
> 284 Bloor St. W., Suite 701,
> Toronto, Ontario,
> M5S 3B8
>
>  >From notheft@microsoft.com Fri Feb 16 06:18:11 2001
> Received: from mail3.microsoft.com ([131.107.3.123]:2640 "HELO
> mail3.microsoft.com") by picton.eecg.toronto.edu with SMTP id
> <S290337AbRBPLRy>; Fri, 16 Feb 2001 06:17:54 -0500
> Received: from 157.54.9.100 by mail3.microsoft.com (InterScan E-Mail
> VirusWall NT); Fri, 16 Feb 2001 03:16:18 -0800 (Pacific Standard Time)
> Received: by inet-imc-03.redmond.corp.microsoft.com with Internet Mail
> Service (5.5.2653.19)
> id <FBMYQF11>; Fri, 16 Feb 2001 03:17:46 -0800
> Message-ID:
>
<81EDEEE0355CB24380319632393FD56DD3B23F@red-msg-01.redmond.corp.microsoft.co
m>
> From: Canadian Anti-Piracy Hotline <notheft@microsoft.com>
> To: Steve Mann <mann@eecg.toronto.edu>
> Subject: RE: Vandalism of informatic property (unsolocited advertising+vir
> us)
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)
> Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 06:17:54 -0500
> Return-Path: <notheft@microsoft.com>
> X-Orcpt: rfc822;mann@eecg.toronto.edu
> Status: OR
>
> Thank you for contacting the Microsoft Anti-Piracy Team.  Microsoft
devotes
> substantial time and energy toward fighting software piracy and we
> appreciate your interest in our initiatives.
>
> If the nature of your email involved a question or a request for
additional
> information on software piracy, a member of our Anti-Piracy Team will
> respond as soon as possible.
>
> If the nature of your email involved the possible unauthorized copying
> and/or distribution of Microsoft software, please be assured we will
> investigate further the matter you reported and will take the appropriate
> action.  Due to the sensitive legal nature of these matters, we cannot
> provide updates on the status of our investigations.
>
> You may visit us at http://www.microsoft.com/canada/piracy to review
> additional information on recognizing genuine Microsoft product,
Microsoft's
> licensing policies and current news about Microsoft's anti-piracy
> initiatives.
>
> Further information about anti-piracy can be obtained from the Canadian
> Alliance Against Software Theft at http://www.caast.org
>
> Thank you for supporting the fight against software theft.
>
> Microsoft Corporation
> International Law & Corporate Affairs
> Anti-Piracy Team
>
>

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