[NTLUG:Discuss] Fear and Loathing in Redmond...

[Stephen Sansom]

</lurk> :-)
<snip> the original post about Microsoft & their licensing </snip>
> 
> Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2001 09:39:06 -0500
> From: Fred James <fredjame at concentric.net>
> To: discuss at ntlug.org
>
>... do you think the following block of text, or something like
> it, might be of any help?
> 

I'd check with an Intellectual Property Attorney....
(see below)

> All data either transmitted to, or transmitted from, this 
> email address
> shall be considered as
> (c) Copyright by me as of the date of original transmission.
> This copyright shall take precedence over any copyright that the
> Microsoft Corporation, or any of
> its agents, may attempt to apply to the transmitted data.
> All data thus copyrighted, but that has not originated with me, shall
> have those rights immediately
> returned and licensed in whole and at no charge, to the originator of
> said data.
> I shall not rescind or revoke those rights or license in any way.
> All copyrights that remain with me shall be governed by the 
> GNU General
> Public License.
> 

...but as a non-attorney interested in intellectual property issues, I'd
think MS might have a hard time defending their claim.  Consider:

I create an email on my Linux system using pine. I own copyright (with or
without express notice). I send this to my friend Fred, who is a hotmail
user. Now, if I understand the "LICENSE TO MICROSOFT" section of this
license agreement, my friend Fred has effectively conveyed to Microsoft all
his rights to email that lands in his hotmail mailbox.

However note: 
--The MS licensing agreement has an element of coersion and duress about
it. Can this be enforced as a contract in the first place? Well, maybe not,
but ultimately I suppose so, because you have the option to use or not to
use hotmail or msn or whatever. Therefore if you don't like the license
agreement, use another service. (There really are plenty others.)

--The license agreement is between FRED and Microsoft, not me and Microsoft. 

--I have not waived my rights nor conveyed them in any way to Fred;
therefore Fred has no standing to assign them to MS or anyone else.

--By the license agreement with MS, Fred warrants that he has the right to
convey to MS the intellectual property rights that MS is claiming in the
"LICENSE TO MICROSOFT" (quoting from the LICENSE TO MICROSOFT: "you [user
of Passport services] warrant and represent that you own or otherwise
control the rights necessary to do so and you are granting Microsoft and
its affiliated companies permission to..." etc).

--I conclude that, by allowing me to send e-mail to him at his hotmail
account, Fred is in violation of this agreement with MicroSux because he
DOES NOT "own or otherwise control the rights necessary" to convey those
rights to MS!!! And therefore MS cannot claim any rights over the material
I sent Fred. Period.

It's just that this would be a real pain to mount an attack against MS --
an expensive pain, at that -- in order to assert my rights which I have
neither waived nor conveyed.

Just my .02....  Intimidation, coersion, bullying. This doesn't enhance my
opinion of Microsoft....

Stephen Sansom
(I don't need this, but: This is copyright by me. I expressly DO NOT convey
any intellectual property rights whatsoever. Especially to Microsoft
Corporation, or whatever their true legal business name is--you know--the
company that Bill Gates is famous for.)
<lurk> :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Be passersby.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~