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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-10-15

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) More Fine Print Follies

We first covered the growing trend of vendors abusing the fine print in end-user license agreements (EULAs) at the beginning of the year. At the time, perhaps the most egregious offender was Juno, the giant "free" ISP: In a struggle to survive, it inserted a stealth amendment to its online user agreement that said, in essence, that Juno could install code onto your PC as part of routine software updates; this new software would allow Juno to take over your PC's spare CPU cycles: Juno would make your PC a slave in Juno's distributed network and sell your CPU cycles to other companies. You, the end user, had no control over what Juno's software was or what it did; you had no claim to any benefits or profits Juno realized from using your PC; and if Juno's use of your PC, CPU or bandwidth caused you extra costs or problems--- tough.

The catch was that you had actually to read the online agreement to know all this. Existing Juno customers who just kept using Juno the way they always had were automatically bound by the new agreement, even if they never saw it. New users who didn't read the fine print likewise were automatically included in Juno's scheme. (Full story: http://www.byte.com/documents/s=571/byt20010222s0004/ )

More recently, other publications have become aware of this trend towards what we might call  "EULA abuse," and we've been seeing more and more coverage on the topic. For example, there has been a rash of recent reports about Microsoft's FrontPage 2002: It has a fairly standard master EULA burned right onto the CD and installed as part of the software, but also has an unusual printed EULA addendum stuffed into the box of retail copies of the software. That addendum says, in part, that you can't use FrontPage 2002 to create or maintain sites that "disparage" Microsoft.

As reported by a number of publications, that EULA sounds like something draconian; an overweening attempt by Microsoft to limit criticism of itself and its products. But, although the FP2002 EULA is flawed, I actually think there's less to it than meets the eye. In actuality, there are far worse EULAs out there.

In a new InformationWeek column, I'll go through the FrontPage EULA in some detail, and also show you a current EULA that I feel is actually much worse--- one that could theoretically let a vendor charge you almost whatever they want, at any time, without your prior knowledge, and yet you'd be liable for the bill.

You see, as we pointed out at the beginning of the year, reading all relevant EULAs and Terms Of Service is a major pain, but it's becoming increasingly essential: Unless you keep your guard way up, you could be opening yourself up for a nasty--- but perfectly legal--- surprise, courtesy of the fine print.

Please come check out the examples I've posted at InformationWeek, and then join in the discussion: What's your experience with EULAs and TOSes? Do you read all such documents, or do you click "accept" and hope for the best? Have you ever been ensnared by "stealth" terms added to a EULA or TOS document? Have you ever declined to use a product because of a too-restrictive legal document? And, with regard to the Front Page EULA, do you agree with my interpretation that it's not a big deal, or am I letting Microsoft off the hook too easily?

Please check out the new article at
http://www.informationweek.com/859/langa.htm  and then add your comments at http://www.informationweek.com/forum/Fred Langa .

See you there!

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3) LiveUpdate: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

Speaking of security holes, here's one that brings to mind the old Latin phrase (above) that means "Who guards the guards?" or "Who watches the watchmen?" It applies today to Symantec/Norton's LiveUpdate: Ironically, LiveUpdate--- the tool used mainly to keep antivirus software up to date--- may itself contain a security hole by which malicious hackers could load hostile code onto your system.

The original report of this problem appears at http://www.phenoelit.de/stuff/LiveUpdate.txt ,and other sites have since picked up on it (Example:
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/10/11/011011hnsecurityflaw.xml?1011alert )

I searched the Symantec site, but could find no response to the report yet. Stay tuned.

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4) BrowserTune 2002

I was surprised at how much mail I got after suggesting (in the last issue) that you might want to try BrowserTune's "Level Three" tests to see if your browser had active Java support: My assumption was that most of you already knew about BrowserTune. My mistake: I guess many, many of you hadn't seen BrowserTune before!

The current version of BrowserTune--- BT2K--- originated on the late, lamented WinMag.Com site. When WinMag shut down, the folks at CMP allowed me to pull the code off their servers (I am BrowserTune's author) and post it on my own site. Some of the BT2K tests did not fare well in the transplantation because they pointed to CMP pages or affiliates that no longer exist, but--- after a ton of work to "de-CMP-ify" the tests--- BT2K reached a point where all the basic tests work fine, and most of the advanced tests do likewise.

I debated whether or not to continue re-doing all the current test pages, but, the "guts" of the current BT site comprise just under 10,000 files and pages (9,664, to be exact!), so it's not a simple thing to wade in and start slinging code. Instead, I've been working on an entirely new and streamlined version of BrowserTune--- BT2002--- for some time now, and hope to have it ready for public test fairly soon.

Because browsers have become more standardized over the last couple years, this new BT version will focus less on the minutia of browser subsystems, and have more geared to tuning browsers and connection speed. It will, however, retain the elements of BT2K that still are germane to the current crop of browsers.

More info to come! Meanwhile: http://www.browsertune.com/

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5) HotSpots

In light of the above, let me also tell you about HotSpots, another site that also used to appear on the WinMag.Com site, but that I'm now running independently (http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/hotspots.htm ). It's a site whose simple mission is to bring you "Every Day, The Best, Most Interesting, Most Useful, and Strangest  Sites the Web Has To Offer!"

For example, during the last weeks, the Hotspots page has offered these links:

It's such a boring name.
http://renamethemoon.org/index.html

Thanks to thousands of you, the LangaList has become one of the five most-recommended "Computing & Internet" web sites, according to the folks at Recommend-It! It's a great feeling to know that this newsletter (and Langa.Com) is useful enough for many, many of you to have suggested it to friends and colleagues.

And, as a way of saying "Thanks!" there are two prizes you can win simply for making a recommendation. For example, if you use the Recommend-It service, you can win $10,000 (full details also available via this link):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... and more. To have a shot at winning, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a $30 Gift Certificate! (Full details also available via this link):
http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

Either way, thank you again, and good luck!

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LAKEWOOD PRODUCTIONS
http://www.lwpconsult.com/

Airjet's Homepage
http://users.chartertn.net/airjet/

Cyber-Shopper
http://www.cyber-shopper.com/Nuke/index.php

Edit-Pros
http://www.members.home.net/alexmcpv/home.htm

Reader Claudia Slate sends along this list of "New TV Shows Inspired By The Internet." The list apparently was originally written by one "Dawny-Ray."

See you next issue!

Best,

Fred
(fred@langa.com)

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