Microsoft forbids class actions in new Windows licence – 354 days old

[Grogan]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05...class_actions/

The first big product to include the altered licence will be Windows 8: a release candidate is expected in June before it ships for PCs and tablets in late summer or the autumn.

Under the new licence, US consumers upset with Microsoft's products must pursue the company through a small-claims court or to arbitration. Where an arbitrator suggests damages greater than any settlement proposed by Microsoft, the company will pay whichever is largest: the higher damages or $1,000 for “most products and services”. Microsoft will also pay double the claimant’s fees.

Microsoft has already updated the Xbox Live EULA to rule out class-action suits.

How can they make you agree to something like that, that dismisses your rights, as a condition of using the product? That's crooked as Hell. This is only in the U.S. where there has been a recent supreme court ruling that may set precedent for this. (Die in a fire, Scalia)

It's certainly not going to wash in other countries.

Fuck you Microsoft... I agree to exactly NONE of your E.U.L.A. and forcing me to accept it in order to use the product I paid for isn't going to make me obey anything.

[ZemaTalon]

I don't think I will ever buy another Microsoft product ever again, maybe an occasional Xbox USB controller but no more OS or other software. I'm pretty sure by the time we can no longer use Win7 for games Steam will be up and running under Linux. I heard a bit more stuff to not like about MS over the weekend - this all comes from a Paul Thurrott podcast I was listening to: A lot of people have been modifying the Win8 beta so that it defaults to the desktop (bypassing Metro), but MS doesn't like people doing that, so they're modifying it before final release so that that won't be possible, they want to force people to use Metro. Paul didn't mention it, but I also suspect part of the reason is the fact that MS is going to try to monetize Metro, by selling Metro apps. They're also supposedly going to make it a lot harder to have multiple applications running in the background. They want people to run programs full screen, one at a time. This has to do with their focus on tablets. Multiple apps running eats up battery life, as does having a desktop on the screen around an app in a window - so they want it full screen, one app at a time, low quality flat graphics. Small mobile devices automatically take care of that, and even when it looks like you have multiple apps running in the background, it's just an illusion, they "tombstone" the ones that loose focus. So given all this, no wonder they want to forbid class action law suits - they probably anticipate a boatload of PC users will be royally P-O'd after they spend $200 on Win8

[MSUredux]

Microsoft to put it bluntly has turned into one royal heap of a cluster fuck.

[Grogan]

They want to regress personal computers, so they can go back in time and lock things down right this time and have ultimate control. They just don't care about the damage they are going to do. It's probably going to work, too. (People are fucking tools)

and yes... for those who aren't, they have the clause forbidding class action law suits, and in the U.S. that's been deemed acceptable. They can give a token award in each individual case that they can't dismiss, and prevent the little people from banding together to actually accomplish anything. They'll work on lobbying and fellating politicians in other countries too. (Good luck in the EU... how's that been working out for you over the years?)

[Dark Angel]

You sure this isn't some kind of conspiracy (particularly when you combine this with the Ubuntu Unity "desktop" being touted as the "alternative") to improve Apple's market share on the desktop? Nothing this horrifically awful could be anything but deliberate.

[Dark Angel]

whoami_Win8.jpg

I couldn't find an image of a mobility-impaired black one-armed lesbian Muslim molesting Bambi to represent Win8 so that will have to do.

[mlangdn]

The hacker community will make "improvements" as necessary.

[Dark Angel]

They're welcome to it. I'm down with a nasty cold and am too doughy in the head to come up with anything profound, though I could probably clumsily offend an additional minority group or two unintentionally.