The Gripe Line | Ed Foster

Bill Gates and PC history

Ed Foster — 2008-07-01T00:19:02-08:00

With Bill Gates stepping down from his day-to-day role of running Microsoft, he's been receiving a great number of accolades about the role he played in history of the PC. Much of it is deserved. But some of it definitely ignores the reality of how the PC industry evolved and the effect that Bill Gates and Microsoft had, for good and bad, on technology innovation.

At the Microsoft farewell to Gates last week, successor Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying: "Bill was really there at the birth of the modern personal computer. Bill really designed the IBM PC. That's my non-revisionist history." Ballmer is unquestionably right about Gates being there from the earliest days with his implementation of Basic for the Altair 8800. And that was in and of itself a significant contribution.

Nonetheless, Ballmer is definitely revising history when he says Gates ]]> READ MORE

Borderline searches and seizures

Ed Foster — 2008-06-27T09:48:48-08:00

Should the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures apply when U.S. Customs agents seizing your laptop at the border to examine your data? Currently the Department of Homeland Security as well as the courts say that such searches are permissible even when then there are no grounds for suspicion against you. But many of my readers feel that it's not only an unreasonable practice but a dangerous invasion of privacy.

A Senate committee hearing this week looked into this issue that we've discussed before. U.S. Customs and Border Protection can and do seize computers and other electronic devices at the border, in some cases keeping them for weeks at a time even when there's no data contraband found. Unfortunately, the Senators received no meaningful answers to their questions about the extent of the program, what kind of things the CBP is looking for, and what it does with the data it obtains.

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Reader voices: Angry at eBay

Ed Foster — 2008-06-23T13:58:51-08:00

As we saw a few weeks ago, many eBay sellers are quite upset over changes the online auction giant recently made to its buyer/seller feedback system. Indeed, it sounds like the anger over this issue led to some very testy exchanges at eBay's annual meeting last week. But the comments I've been getting from readers suggest that eBay's problems go way beyond seller anger over the feedback changes.

As much as many sellers hate the new feedback system, many buyers say they were very frustrated by the old one. "I appreciate the point of view many sellers have regarding the changes eBay has made to its user feedback system - they worry that they will be at the mercy of dishonest, unscrupulous buyers," wrote one reader. "As an honest buyer, however, I think some change to eBay's feedback policy has been long overdue. EBay is entirely correct that the mutual feedback system wasn't working well because buyers were afraid to leave honest feedback. I have seen sellers who plainly post in their eBay listings statements like 'feedback will be given after it is received -- if we receive negative feedback, we will give negative feedback.' The seller has the obligation to describe an item accurately and to deliver the item in a timely fashion. If he fails either of these obligations, the buyer ought to be able to give appropriate feedback without fear of retaliation. With its revised feedback policy eBay has probably tilted the playing too much in favor of unscrupulous buyers. But after so many years of having the playing field favoring bad sellers, giving ]]> READ MORE

Teleblend's terrible terms

Ed Foster — 2008-06-20T00:11:01-08:00

In our continuing search for the worst Terms of Service (ToS) on the Internet, we've seen some pretty nasty legalese. Now a reader points out VOIP provider Teleblend's "Customer Opt-In Service Agreement," which certainly has more than its share of customer-unfriendly provisions. But what's really striking is how Teleblend takes the already laughable "contract formation" rules of the typical sneakwrap license to absurd new heights.

"I originally signed up with SunRocket, which filed Chapter 7 last July with no advance notice," the reader wrote. "As part of my one-year agreement with SunRocket, they had provided a free VOIP gateway. After the bankruptcy, Teleblend purchased some of the SunRocket hardware and customer information. Having those assets made them an easy port in a tough time, so I went ahead and transferred. No new contract was required by Teleblend, so I was only at risk of current service, which was in the toilet anyway, so it made sense."

At no point since Teleblend took over does the reader recall being informed that there was a new ToS]]> READ MORE

Spyware bill cloaks a mini-UCITA

Ed Foster — 2008-06-16T01:11:44-08:00

The holy grail for the software industry's political muscle has long been what in UCITA was called "electronic self help" - the right of software publishers to remotely disable their software on the mere suspicion that it hasn't been paid for. UCITA was ultimately stopped, but last Wednesday the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on a bill that nominally is supposed to fight spyware but seems intended to make remote disabling legal.

As I suggested last week, S. 1625 -- the Counter Spy Act -- takes an anti-spyware approach that's very similar to the way the failed Can-Spam Act of 2003 attacked spam. Its list of prohibited behaviors - like taking over computers with zombies and collecting information for identity theft -- are all already clearly illegal under existing laws. Its various loopholes would allow some bad actors to claim they're actually following the law. And actual victims would have virtually no recourse but to beg the FTC to take action.

But one aspect of the Counter Spy Act is far more troubling than anything that was in Can-Spam.]]> READ MORE

Reader Voices: Autorenewal defenses

Ed Foster — 2008-06-13T00:24:44-08:00

How can we protect ourselves from online services that employ hidden autorenewal clauses to keep charging us? Readers responded to my recent story about how credit card companies like American Express handle disputed autorenewal charges with some ideas on what we can do about it.

"I thought about this a while back while working with a client who didn't want to buy on the Internet because of credit card security concerns," wrote one reader. "The workaround was to buy a gift card, for the appropriate amount, with cash, so there wasn't a credit card number attached to allow auto-renewal. Just use the gift card once, then cut it up and throw it away. Be sure to figure the cost of the gift card into the price of the product, though. The client in question was an AAA member, though, and they apparently have a program where they waive the card charge and just issue the card for the amount of value received for members. I also thought this was a nifty idea for safeguarding credit cards while on vacation, too. At most, the thief gets the vacation spending money, and no connection to me that could be used to commit identity theft."

Another reader had a suggestion]]> READ MORE

FTC says yes, you still Can Spam

Ed Foster — 2008-06-10T08:20:17-08:00

I just stumbled onto the fact that the FTC recently announced some changes to the Can-Spam Act, or as I started calling it even before it was enacted, the "Yes, You Can Spam Act." Could it be that the FTC has come up with some fixes that will help? Well, no, I'm afraid not.

The FTC issued four new rules based on comments filed by interested parties as it is supposed to do under the 2003 law. Only one of the new rules could have any positive effect that I can see, a clarification that e-mail recipients cannot be required to pay a fee or provide information other than their e-mail address to opt out from receiving spam.

In the meantime, another of the new rules takes the worst aspect of Can-Spam -- the fact that we are all expected to opt out from every spamming list using the opt-out procedure designated by the spammer -- and makes it even]]> READ MORE

Will cable companies throttle YouTube instead of P2P?

Ed Foster — 2008-06-06T00:28:19-08:00

Internet bandwidth hogs might not be the only ones with a stake in the outcome of pilot tests Time Warner and Comcast have announced they are beginning in some cities. It may well be that anyone who wants to be able to watch video over the Internet should be paying attention to what's going on here.

The two cable giants are taking somewhat different approaches to the problem of a very few customers using a very large share of high-speed Internet bandwidth. Time Warner is trying out tiered price levels, with the low being $30 and 5GB per month and a dollar penalty for each extra gigabyte used. Comcast, responding to legal pressure over its throttling of P2P traffic and other dubious practices, says it will now punish the most abusive users rather than particular applications.

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Barracuda sneakwrap has a nasty bite

Ed Foster — 2008-06-03T00:35:05-08:00

Can hardware be licensed? More specifically, can a hardware vendor validly bury usage restrictions like resale prohibitions deep in hidden sneakwrap licenses? And what if that hardware comes with a hefty helping of open source software - do the transfer prohibitions apply to that too? I don't know, but Barracuda Networks thinks it does, because that's what it doing with its anti-spam firewall products.

A reader was recently evaluating a batch of second-hand networking equipment available from a local dealer, most of it he believes from a now-defunct mortgage institution that sold off its data center inventory. "He had a Barracuda Model 300 antispam firewall that he wanted $600 for," the reader wrote about a device that Barracuda sells for $2,000 new, plus a very necessary "Energize Update" subscription at $500 per year. "I chatted with Barracuda about it online and they told me that the subscription on that serial number had expired in March. Barracuda would not support it, he told me - that is their policy. I told him I thought this is dishonest and sleazy. What do they expect their customers to do, buy an extra plot at Forest Lawn and have their equipment buried with them when they go?"

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A slightly crippled printer

Ed Foster — 2008-05-30T09:02:54-08:00

When you find a product you really like, it can be a real downer to discover that a feature you had every reason to believe was there has deliberately been withheld. Such is the experience of one reader with the Dymo LabelWriter 400 printer and its stamp-printing capability.

"The Dymo LabelWriter is a nifty USB label printer that has ended my suffering at the hands of a Canon multifunction printer that never could quite print envelopes," the reader wrote. "Included in the box is a roll of postal-imprint pink-striped labels that lets you print stamps -- you buy the labels and postage -- from an outfit called Endicia.com . And it works pretty well for printing 42-cent first class stamps, 59-cent 2-oz stamps, and $4.80 priority mail stamps. Then I tried to print $5.32 to send a one-ounce letter first class, Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. But there was no way to enter a numeric value for the stamps, nor was there a menu option for Certified Mail let alone RRR. A visit to the]]> READ MORE

You can book a victory for resale rights

Ed Foster — 2008-05-27T00:23:09-08:00

We all basically understand how we are legally allowed to treat one type of copyrighted product: a book. With software and other digital products, though, it's not so clear. But a terrific court decision last week at least suggests that we can treat all copyrighted products the same as a book -- even when they have sneakwrap license "agreements" that prohibit us from doing so.

The U.S. District Court in Seattle last week issued a decision denying a motion by Autodesk to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Timothy Vernor. Vernor's attempts to sell used copies of AutoCad on eBay had been repeatedly interrupted by Autodesk's DMCA takedown notices. Vernor, represented by Public Citizen and Seattle attorney Michael Withey, had sued to force Autodesk to concede his right to sell legally acquired copies of the software under the First Sale doctrine of copyright law. Autodesk's motion to dismiss argued that the AutoCad EULA prohibited Vernor from re-selling the software, but Judge Richard A. Jones ruled in Vernor's favor and the case will proceed.

The First Sale doctrine originated over a century ago when book publishers]]> READ MORE

Negative Feedback on EBay's Feedback Changes

Ed Foster — 2008-05-23T09:25:06-08:00

It takes both buyers and sellers to make a market. But many experienced eBay sellers are up in arms this week over changes eBay has implemented to its feedback system that appear tilted heavily in favor of buyers, and perhaps also in favor of higher fees for eBay.

"I am so angry I am about to pop a vessel," wrote a reader whom I know to generally be rather unflappable. "This week eBay implemented changes to their mutual feedback system that have essentially destroyed it. After working for four years on my hobby business, the last two as a Powerseller, doing everything within my power as an ethical seller to maintain a 100% feedback rating, it's destroyed. As it is now, the seller is left with virtually no recourse, and I assure you there are psycho, vindictive, dishonest buyers out there that are going to take advantage of these changes. The number of reports of buyers trying to extort sellers is growing in the feedback forum by the hour. This is the most unbelievable boneheaded management decision I think I have ever seen an organization like eBay make."

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Criminalizing ToS Violations

Ed Foster — 2008-05-19T01:37:20-08:00

Many of us question whether sneakwrap agreements like the Terms of Service (ToS) of most websites should be considered a binding contractual agreement. But several stories in the news have shown a disturbing trend that goes even further -- treating a ToS violation not just as a breach of contract, but as a criminal act.

Certainly the story getting the most attention right now is the tragic cyberbullying case in which a 49-year-old woman is alleged to have harassed a teenage girl into suicide using a phony MySpace account. Lacking appropriate laws covering cyberbullying, federal prosecutors have brought charges against the woman -- in Los Angeles, MySpace's headquarters, rather than Missouri, where the woman and the teenager resided -- for violating MySpace ToS provisions. As many observers have noted, it's a real stretch to use the federal anti-hacking statutes in this way, and a very slippery slope.

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Legit sites imitate phishy behavior

Ed Foster — 2008-05-16T09:59:00-08:00

It's getting next to impossible to tell the good guys from the bad guys on the Internet. And, as several readers have pointed out recently, it's not just because the scammers are getting better at masquerading as legitimate entities. All too often, the real site seems to be impersonating a phishing scheme impersonating it.

"I recently received a message claiming to be from Consumer Reports," a reader wrote. "It is a 100% perfect duplicate of a phish message to steal my credit card info. It has all the pitfalls that articles on identity theft warn us to look out for and avoid, including warnings in Consumer Reports itself. With the help of SpamCop, I reverse engineered the header and proved that yes, Consumer Reports DID send the message. They have done their bit to make account theft the fastest growing crime in the world."

The reader wrote to Consumer Reports to complain]]> READ MORE

Suing Sony

Ed Foster — 2008-05-13T00:37:41-08:00

Trying to get your warranty honored on a laptop with a cracked LCD display is generally as easy as running through a brick wall. The presumption by the manufacturer is always that the damage is due to customer abuse. But one reader recently succeeded in getting compensation on a Sony laptop, although only after going to the lengths of filing a lawsuit against the company. The reader's story started out pretty much the same as many we've heard. The display on his Sony Vaio SZ Series laptop failed shortly before his one-year warranty was to expire. Sony initially promised to service the computer under warranty, but then the Sony Customer Satisfaction Center informed him the screen was "physically damaged" and was therefore not covered. After months of wrangling, Sony returned the useless system to him unrepaired. Certain that he had not done anything that should have damaged the screen, the reader refused to leave it at that. He also had a very strong suspicion about what had actually caused the LCD to crack. "A slight warping in a bottom plastic vent piece on our laptop is located below the palm rest area where at least some of the notorious Sony... READ MORE