Huddled Masses

Posts Tagged ‘licensing’

Microsoft has been very busy this year … and in these last couple of months before the general availability of Windows 7, they’re trying very hard to crank out the tools necessary to encourage development of Windows 7 applications.

The first tool out of the gate, of course, was the Windows API Code Pack for the .Net framework. A nice library that makes it simple to write applications that take advantage of new Windows Vista and Windows 7 features like Libraries, Task panes and jump lists. Of course, that library has a major problem: it’s got an ugly and confusing license. Rather than using one of the standard Microsoft Open Source Licenses, the team used a license from the dark ages that features the vague “Excluded Licenses” clause and other ugly terminology.

More recently, Microsoft has announced a Platform Update for Vista which is intended to allow Vista to run most applications designed for Windows 7. The Platform Update is a set of runtime libraries which includes the Windows Ribbon control; Automation Manager Library; DirectX updates for hardware acceleration; DirectCompute for hardware-accelerated parallel computing support; the XPS printing library; the Windows Automation API; and the Windows Portable Devices Platform, which standardizes data transfers across apps and portable devices. This important package will be made available through Windows Update (and applications will be able to prompt you to download it) and it is in public beta with more information on the Windows Team blog. A couple of pieces of that will be made available for Windows XP; particularly the Automation API, which allows accessibility tools and test automation tools to access Windows user interface in a consistent way — this will mean that the next release of WASP will work flawlessly across Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Also in the works is the Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 (RDC7) client for Windows XP and Windows Vista to allow these older clients to take advantage of all new server features in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, including multi-monitor support and media redirection. There’s more information about that on the Remote Desktop team blog.

And finally, the release candidate for the Windows Management Framework (WMF) is also available. The WMF will include WinRM (Microsoft’s implementation of the WS-Management spec), PowerShell 2.0, and BITS for Server 2008, Windows Vista, Server 2003, and of course, Windows XP. This means that if you’re on Vista, or still using Windows XP, you can now upgrade from the PowerShell 2.0 CTP 3 to this release candidate and expect remoting to work!

All of these should be seeing final releases in the very near future, and some of them possibly by the time Windows 7 is released to the public.

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Someone earlier today was gushing about how neat Evernote is … it’s a OneNote-like application which features add-ins for browsers and email clients to let you clip text and images, or record voice, take notes in handwriting, etc … and it’s cross-platform and has a version for Windows Mobile and iPhone! I thought it sounded interesting, although the key feature of sharing all your notes automatically across all your clients made me a bit suspicious, so I went online to check it out.

By now, those of you who have previously read my rants about software licenses know to avoid Evernote. But let me tell my story anyway. I downloaded the installer and ran through it, noting that the click-through license displayed in the installer is for the software only, and references possible additional terms for a “service” ... So far, so good, the most annoying thing I noticed while scanning was:

9. Monitoring and Removal of information. ... Evernote Corporation and its designees shall have the right to refuse or remove any information that violates this Agreement or is otherwise objectionable, in Evernote Corporation sole judgment…

I didn’t particularly like that in a software license, but it wasn’t enough to get me to stop installing the software. However, I have to say, the license it is ridiculously huge:

• Roughly 3500 words
• On 330 lines of text
• (which you’re expected to read in a 10-line window)

• Making 33 pages of license (about 8 pages printed on letter size paper)

Nobody should be expected to put up with this. Let me say this for the record:

Put your license on the download page.

This will allow people like me to read the license before we download the software and possibly save us the trouble. Pretending you think people will read something like that in the tiny little window is a cruel joke.

The worst joke, however, was yet to come.

Can’t someone put a stop to this stuff? Where are our representatives when you need them? I started to sign up to try digsby this evening, but when I read the terms of service, I had to quickly back away and abort. Let me just say this for the record: these are not acceptable terms of service.

We may change this contract at any time. You must review this contract on a regular basis. You can find the most recent version of the contract at http://www.digsby.com/tos.php. The changed contract is in effect right away.

I do not agree to “review this contract on a regular basis” — that’s preposterous. I have several hundred software applications installed — imagine if they all required me to review their contracts every day before I used them, just in case they had modified them. Imagine if I had to read 16 points spread out over 1200 lines of legalese for each application I use, just in case you decided that the terms of service should require me to mew like a cat every 15 minutes while using it or pay a $1500 monthly user fee…

I most certainly do not agree to any changes that go into effect right away before I’ve even been notified of them or had a chance to read them. What if you change them to involve a daily fee …. while I’m on vacation?

All upgrades, updates or enhancements of the Software shall be deemed to be part of the Software and will be subject to this Agreement…. By installing the Software, you hereby agree to automatically request and receive Updates from dotSyntax’s servers.

I most certainly do not agree that you should be allowed to change your software at any time automatically without my permission. And especially not when you also say …

DOTSYNTAX IS NOT RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE FOR (1) ANY VIRUSES OR OTHER DISABLING FEATURES THAT AFFECT YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF THE SOFTWARE, (2) ANY INCOMPATIBILITY BETWEEN THE SOFTWARE AND OTHER WEB SITES, SERVICES, SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE...

Unbelievable!

Oh, yeah, and don’t forget … you would also have to check their privacy policy:

The Privacy Policy available at http://www.digsby.com/privacy.php explains dotSyntax’s information practices that apply to … information about you and your use of Digsby.

From last friday:

Acting on the advice of the License Approval Chair, the OSI Board today approved the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL) and the Microsoft Reciprocal License (Ms-RL). The decision to approve was informed by the overwhelming (though not unanimous) consensus from the open source community that these licenses satisfied the 10 criteria of the Open Source definition, and should therefore be approved.

Not much to say about that, except: about time! (oh, and thank goodness Richard Stallinman isn’t in charge of the OSI).

I wrote my own screenshot app called ShotGlass, which does all sorts of things and is released for free under the MIT License, which basically means that ShotGlass is free for you to do pretty much whatever you like, as long as you don’t expect me to guarantee it or provide service, or in any way be responsible for what might go wrong.

The official license is as follows:

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Here’s the download …