Bug#296087: IMPORTANT: Microsoft EULA is NON-FREE and give MS specific rights!!
Package: openoffice.org
Version: 1.1.1-3
Severity: grave
Hello,
This is a SEVERE thing. I installed Debian/Sarge's version 1.1.1 of
openoffice.
While doing backups I found:
/home/xxx/.openoffice/1.1.1/THIRDPARTYLICENSEREADME.html
which contains the full Microsoft EULA: (see clip below)
As the license itself says: it is IMPORTANT. Please recall what
IMPORTING something to ones conscience mind means.
And I don't mind saying I'm angry that "some yoohoo" slipped that damned
license on my system. However: I do have a rights to use it. I'm
licensed to use a MS product meantioned and I paid for my copy of Solaris
and StarOffice.
No. My concern is the harm that can come to Debian - which is the
largest and best compilation of truely "clean" of license linux.
///////////////////////////
IF YOU AREN'T YET MAKING PHONE CALLS:
I don't know if you europeans understand what that license means
in U.S. language: it means they have rights to access all of your
personal work on your computer systems and "have your ass" in any courtroom
situation simply because their libraries are on your system - even if
you infact didn't know they were there (because you negleged to look for
the license).
If any codes of Microsoft (including fonts or save formats) that the license
referers to are in any part of any of your work: it is not your work ! until
such time as you remove Microsoft's binaries (without looking at them, of
course).
Infact. Using Microsoft software you have no right to copyright or
share the entirety of your work UNTIL IT IS PRINTED. That is, until it
contains no Microsoft binaries of any form.
And of COURSE: if you don't have license to use one of the meantioned
products: they can sue you.
And of COURSE: they can sue you for distributing anything containing the
license indescriminantly.
That is in fact what that license says specifically. That is how it
would be treated.
The President is from Texas (so gov workers now get Dell laptops). No
coincidence: beleive me. Microsoft has their own judges and does an
excellent job of "lobbying" our Congress.
I feel quite confident that the double talk allowed in a case would be
immense and favorative of Microsoft: If you don't know what double talk
is and how it effects the reality of purpose you had best not even think of
having a copy of the MS EULA anywhere on your HD.
///////////////////////////
IF YOU AREN'T YET MAKING PHONE CALLS:
Did you read that news article in the Washington Post about Sony raiding
Microsoft's Japan Headquarters? Do you know why? Its all in the EULA.
Read it again and again until the finality and the wideness sinks in.
I keep thinking of "Lindows". The Linux for compatibility Windows.
Forgive and forget, he liked to say. He liked to think the days of war
between microsoft and linux were over. I've know that company at the
assembler level since DOS. The war was allways there. Its still here
and bigger than ever. Microsoft is cheating more than ever: I've read
(or reviewed) most of their Developer's kit (included all but Xp).
When I saw Microsoft suing Lindows I laughed. I knew two years before it
happened. And if you didn't? You had best open your eyes:
Microsoft is a city in the state of Washington which has (pays) its own
U.S. judges. They are sprawling and have a lust for riches. Their is
no sentiment which will calm their push toward monopoly, because it in
part is the primal instinct to breed if it means ruining other cities - and
this instinct is encouraged there in that "evil" city. And if you think
those bugs aren't their so they can poke into your government's offices:
your just loosers, so why send your family jewels to Redmond Washington now
while the contribution is still appreciable?
All you have to do is read phorums that Microsoft users from the Seattle
/ Redmond area have left on the internet to see that they seek to
actively demolish averything but their own. (saw one such message about
tricking linux users just a couple weeks ago while researching)
Their source has been crooked since the DOS and ASM days. They've been
sued and have ignored U.S. rulings since the DOS days. They've turned
on every U.S. company that once considered themselves "ms insiders".
And for the U.S.? MS is poision. It means more imports and less U.S.
workers. Don't think we like it. No one in the U.S. likes "the phone
company" or "big government". Allthough I think the goverment worker
population now outnumbers the *real* workers in the U.S.
You can't fight the bitch with ideas. Only with faith, GPL code, and
brotherhood to your own; unix users. And that is where the Lindows guy went
wrong. He trusted to faith what is not a matter faith. And he failed
to (though I would have at his age) look into the Oracle of the past
still in the aged Forums on the internet. It was called war then.
People took it seriously then.
Incidentally: I won't let this issue rest I'm afraid. I won't rest
until there is NO MICROSOFT EULA in Debian.
Respectfully yours,
John D. Hendrickson
johndhendrickson22124@yahoo.com
PS
Being a 35 yr old Linux user since '92 (God I feel old!) I just thought
I'd share a little OS history. It is the war between pulishers and
authors. And that battle has been prominent all throughout history.
Still not convinced that Microsoft is not to be trusted? Oh. That is too
bad. I hope lady history treats you better than your unempathetic
treating of her.
Well what can I say if you don't think it's serious yet? Good. I'll
keep my copy without software that has MS EULA's and distribute it when your
in jail ;)
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.7-k7
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (ignored: LC_ALL set to C)
Versions of packages openoffice.org depends on:
ii dictionaries-common [openoffi 0.22.27 Common utilities for spelling dict
pn openoffice.org-bin Not found.
pn openoffice.org-debian-files Not found.
pn openoffice.org-l10n-en | open Not found.
-------------------------------------------------------
john: snippet of license:
IMPORTANT: READ CAREFULLYThese Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft")
operating system components, including any "online" or electronic
documentation ("OS Components") are subject to the terms and
conditions of the agreement under which you have licensed the
applicable Microsoft operating system product ("OS Product")
described below (each an "End User License Agreement" or "EULA")
and the terms and conditions of this Supplemental EULA. BY INSTALLING,
COPYING OR OTHERWISE USING THE OS COMPONENTS, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND
BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE APPLICABLE OS PRODUCT EULA AND
THIS SUPPLEMENTAL EULA. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS AND
CONDITIONS, DO NOT INSTALL, COPY OR USE THE OS COMPONENTS.
NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VALID EULA FOR ANY "OS PRODUCT"
(MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS ME, WINDOWS NT 4.0 (DESKTOP
EDITION), WINDOWS 2000 OPERATING SYSTEM, WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL
AND/OR WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION), YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO INSTALL,
....
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