My apologies for the last message.  Mail client issues.

Jack Ungerleider writes:
> One of the scenarios I read about (I apologize if this
> has been touched on, I missed the beginning of the thread) talks
> about receiving a file from a "blacklisted" copy of Office. Your copy
> of Office would refuse to open the file. The first time this happens
> in a legal, regulatory, or other "emergancy" situation you can bet
> there will be a lawsuit to undo the controls.

Ignore the fact that this is Microsoft.  Doesn't that sound like a great way
to protect your software from being illegally copied?

This is not a privacy violation.  If such protection were implemented, the
end users of both copies of the software would have agreed when agreeing to
the EULA.  (Ignore the issue of whether or not EULAs are legal.  The point
is that the users understood how the software worked and agreed before using
it.)

The creator of a document uses an illegitimate copy with a unique ID number
that ends up on the Microsoft blacklist.  That ID number is saved in the
document.  When the viewer attempts to open the document, the software
checks if the ID number is on the blacklist (this can be done in a way that
does not compromise privacy) and refuses to open the document.

The only "privacy" issue here is documents having a unique ID number
identifying the software instance used to create it.  Any other issues are
wild speculation based on vaporware.

-- 
David Phillips <david at acz.org>
http://david.acz.org/


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