Windows users who download Microsoft's new Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications application aren't just agreeing to have anti-piracy nagware installed on their computer. They are also agreeing to the harshest Microsoft End User License Agreement I have ever seen, and that's saying something. Not only does Microsoft place restrictions on your right to criticize the software, it won't allow you to uninstall the software or to test it in an operating environment.
A reader reported yesterday that he started to download a high priority update from the Windows Update site that turned out to be the already controversial beta WGA Notification software. The reader had gone through the WGA validation process before and knew he has a valid XP license, so he was willing to download the update until he was presented with a EULA for the pre-release software.
"Why would it have an end user license agreement?" the reader puzzled. "Is this just a way to foist a new 'agreement' on end users? What possible reason could there be for a license agreement on this type of software? The only reasonable explanation I can think of for a EULA on this is to rewrite prior agreements. And what am I being asked to agree to?"
So that everyone can see for themselves the terms the reader was presented, I've posted the WGA Notifications EULA in the EULA Library on the Gripewiki. Late yesterday afternoon a Microsoft spokesperson was able to confirm for me that the EULA I've posted is indeed the license agreement for the WGA Notification software during the pilot program. "The WGA Notifications is still in limited pilot mode in the U.S., so only a subset of customers who have Automatic Update will receive the EULA," the Microsoft spokesperson said. "The EULA is shown to customers who have AU turned on. Only after the user accepts the EULA is the software installed." More information about the WGA Notifications program is available on Microsoft's WGA FAQ page.
One provision in the EULA that really puzzled the reader, and me, was this one:
You may not test the software in a live operating environment unless Microsoft permits you to do so under another agreement.
Wait a minute, said the reader. "I'm being asked by Microsoft to install this software in a working operating environment," he noted. "If that's not a definition of a 'live' operating environment, then we need a definitions section of the agreement. Otherwise, it seems I'm being asked to install the software as long as it's not in a working copy of Windows XP."
Along with that head scratcher, there are many other disturbing terms in the WGA Notification EULA. You aren't allowed to uninstall the software, even though it's pre-release software that presumably can be buggy. Information that Microsoft gathers about your computer can be shared with other hardware and software vendors. Any feedback you give Microsoft belongs to them to do with as they please and you give up all rights to it. And the EULA contains a new version of Microsoft's no-benchmarking censorship clause that says:
You may not ... disclose the results of any benchmark tests of the software to any third party without Microsoft's prior written approval
Now, I've been raging about how Microsoft uses the no-benchmark-publishing-without-permission clauses in its server and development products for many years, but at least in those areas Microsoft can argue that its competitors often have censorship clauses of their own. There is no such excuse for such a restriction on software that general consumers are being "invited" to install in order to monitor their licensing compliance and that in the future might prevent them from downloading critical security updates and bug fixes. In fact, it strikes me as an outrageous abuse of Microsoft's monopoly power to even hint it has the right to keep anyone from criticizing the WGA Notification software in any way.
At least for now, fortunately, use of the notification software is voluntary, although we have to assume that, just as other formerly voluntary aspects of the Windows Genuine Advantage program were, it will soon be made mandatory. For now, though, the reader was able to do what anyone with sense should do when presented with this nasty EULA: decline to accept it and refuse to download the update. "As I say, I can't imagine why they would have a EULA at all for Windows Genuine Advantage Notification," the reader wrote. "Indeed, I think it leaves very little question about who will be taken advantage of."
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