The Small Print Project                            

The long-awaited MS Office 2007 is here but is it worth it? The NYTimes’ David Pogue says, why hell yes: “After a radical redesign, Word, Excel and PowerPoint are almost totally new programs.”

It may help MSFT that the apps are finally online, in keeping up with Google, but history says that most companies/enterprises will be slow to upgrade to 007, and perhaps for good reason. In fact, there really may be no good reason to upgrade…

As Elsa found:

Product: Microsoft Office Standard 2007 (trial)
URLProduct: http://office.microsoft.com/office/eula
Lowpoints: Lots of vague language about “Internet Based Services” without explaining what that means. There are three separate EULAs without explaining that the RFF terms are the ones to pay attention to if you bought Office in a store. I installed without being connected to the Internet. Then when running Office, Microsoft kept prompting me to install things such as a desktop search for Outlook.

Highpoints: This doesn’t have to do with the EULA, but installation was faster than in the past. And by default, Microsoft offers the least-intrusive installation options. You’ll have to mark a radio button if you want Microsoft to see how you use Office for its customer experience program, for instance.

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I’ve been working on a three part summary of this project and am awaiting a bit of peer review before posting it to the masses. I’m still receiving submissions and feedback from the ‘Net trawlers among you and forever invite and appreciate your input — the more exposure forsaken EULAs get, the more they’ll be recognized, accosted and the sooner we will see reform in the way licensing agreements are designed, enforced and accepted.

In the coming days I’ll post on Microsoft’s Vista EULA and obtuse DRM policies as a possible watershed moment/turning point for digital agreements as we know them. Additionally, I’ll summarize the year in DRM (digital rights management) and how consumers and developers/corporations alike can learn from present-day experiments and reforms in DRM-free music distribution as a way to reform the licensing and sharing of products and services. Finally, I will suggest some best practices and how I’ve found many major corporations to not only shy away from discussing their EULAs and licensing policies, but have actively worked to obfuscate the historical evolution of their licenses online and otherwise.

Now a word from YOU… Tracy submitted this in an attempt to calm her rage against her television set-maker’s unruly requirements for registration in order to provide warrantied support.

EULA URL: http://www.rca.com/content/viewdetail/1,2811,EI79-CI255,00.html?
Product: RCA Thomson, Customer service for a broken TV.

Low Point: In order to *ask a question about a product*, I have to “register an account”: I must consent to their profiting from a sale of my personal information. I know from the story of Veterans Admin stolen laptops, and other stories of stolen data, that every “live” contact is worth well over $10/. …How much, exactly, is my information worth? ( That is, I am a real person, with a real address, and a real phone number, and a real email)

PS they didn’t answer the question, they did give me a phone number (Unavailable on company literature. Company requires internet registry for any contact.)

Comments(4)