RISKVUE ARCHIVE | RISK BITES

Computer Madness

Ridiculous Click Wrap Agreements

You may want to read the next software license, otherwise known as “click wrap agreement,” that appears when you install software on your computer before clicking on the “I Agree” button. Some outrageous disclaimers have appeared recently in click wrap agreements, put there by overzealous software companies that are convinced no one is reading the fine print.

Last year, Yahoo purchased Geo Cities and changed the terms of service to include some highly controversial language in the new click-wrap agreement. The terms of service attempts to give Yahoo “the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed.”

In other words, anyone who uses Geo Cities to host their website can say goodbye to copyright and exclusive ownership of the material on those web pages. That picture of your dog, that poem about your grandmother, everything on your Geo Cities website could be used, reproduced, modified, adapted, published, and so on, by Yahoo.

So, what other companies have included outrageous terms and disclaimers in their click wrap agreements? Here are some examples:

Product: McAfee Guard Dog
Disclaimer: “The customer shall not disclose the results of any benchmark test to any third party without Network Associates’ prior written approval.”

Product: America Online
Disclaimer: “AOL PROVIDES THE AOL SERVICE ON A COMMERCIALLY REASONABLE BASIS AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE THAT MEMBERS WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS OR USE THE SERVICE AT TIMES OR LOCATIONS OF THEIR CHOOSING, OR THAT AOL WILL HAVE ADEQUATE CAPACITY FOR THE SERVICE AS A WHOLE OR IN ANY SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHIC AREA.”

Product: Mac OS9
Disclaimer: “NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION, COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, OR AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL MACHINES IN WHICH CASE THE FAILURE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.”

Source: “Click Here for a Bogus New Law” by Stephen Manes. Forbes, March 20, 2000.

Sites That Suck

Look out if you have unhappy customers or employees. In the not too distant future, the disgruntled masses may be able to establish websites with domain names like www.your-company.sucks or www.your-product.isnotgreen. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is pushing for ten new top-level domains that, according to Nader’s pro-consumer organization Consumer Project, “would facilitate free speech and criticism, and enable consumers, workers and others to organize.”

If Nader has his way, top-level domains like .com, .net and .org will be joined by .union, .customers, .complaints, .ecology, .isnotgreen, .isnotfair, .shareholder, .taxpayer, .unite and, of course, .sucks.

In a letter to ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), Consumer Project lays out a proposal that describes how each new top-level domain would be used. For example, .ecology and .isnotgreen would be managed by environmental groups, “to create forums to discuss and criticize the environmental policies of businesses, governments and other organizations.” While Consumer Project believes the top level domain names will “enable citizens to improve civil society,” many worry that creating them will open a Pandora’s box where countless other special interest groups demand their own top-level domains.

We think the proposal is preposterous, but if you happen to disagree, please don’t rush out and create a www.rml.sucks website. 

Source: “Nader Group Proposes Official Websites-that.suck,” from About.com’s Internet/Online section. March 8, 2000.

Read Consumer Project’s letter at http://www.cptech.org/ecom/icann/tlds-march1-2000.html

Beware Of Keystroke Cops

Big brother has just gotten bigger. According to The Wall Street Journal, some companies are now using computer surveillance software capable of monitoring every single keystroke that is made on employees’ computers. Unlike other software programs that only monitor data saved in computer files or transferred over networks, the latest software gathers information at the moment it is typed.

Let’s say for example that an employee types up an angry letter of resignation in a moment of haste and then has second thoughts, deleting it from his computer. Too late — there is no such thing as “second thoughts,” as the software has already transferred the employee’s “first thoughts” to management. Courts have consistently held that information written on company computers is not private, but what about information that is in draft format that employees never intend to have see the light of day? Can employees reasonably expect to have their raw thoughts kept private, even though such thoughts are in written format? 

Source: “Thinking Out Loud” by Michael J. Mcarthy. The Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2000.

riskVue | The webzine for risk management professionals
August 2000