Bonum Certa Men Certa

Have Microsoft EULAs Just Been Declared Invalid in the United Kingdom?



Summary: Microsoft's software licences may lack a legal basis and Apple is tickled for breaking the law as a sacred, secret and specially-blessed hypePhone gets out of Apple's hands again

SEVERAL years ago, an analysis was published in The Register which contended that Microsoft's EULA is not enforceable in Britain. Microsoft claims no liability [1, 2, 3, 4] and also forbids benchmarks (which Phoronix produces a lot of these days). A reader has just sent us this new article from The Register. It says that the "High Court rules software liability clause not 'reasonable'" and that "The IT industry feared that the result would make it harder to make claims for software, but the Court said that EDS's fraudulent misrepresentation was down to the conduct of one employee, not the whole firm. Experts said that this made it less likely that IT suppliers would overhaul the way they sold their systems."



"This is a very important story," explained our reader, "and a good tech journalist would investigate all such 'only your money back' agreements." Like its close partner Samsung, Microsoft has a history of using British law (+EULA) as an instrument of abuse.

As side news, Apple's 4th generation hypePhone has been 'leaked' again. [via]

Wow, Apple aren’t being too careful these days, they appear to have lost another 4th gen iPhone – this one is a 16 GB model. These images have appeared on a Vietnamese website Taoviet.vn.

Rumors are that this handset was bought in the US for $4,000 by a Vietnamese businessman, along with an iPad. What do you think? Genuine? Other rumors suggest this iPhone is fitted with the A4 processor, same as the iPad.


Will Apple break the law again (or have the police break the law) by bullying the person in possession of this phone, just as it did to Gizmodo? (details in the links below)



Recent Techrights' Posts

The Free Software Foundation is Looking to Raise Nearly Half a Million Dollars by Year's End
And it really needs the money, unlike the EFF which sits on a humongous pile of oligarchs' and GAFAM cash
 
Links 19/11/2024: War on Cables?
Links for the day
Drew's Development Mailing Lists and Patches to 'Refine' His Attack Pieces Against the FSF's Founder
Way to bury oneself in one's own grave...
What IBMers Say About IBM Causing IBMers to Resign (by Making Life Hard/Impossible) and Why Red Hat Was a Waste of Money to Buy
partnering with GAFAM
In Some Countries, Desktop/Laptop Usage Has Fallen to the Point Where Microsoft and Windows (and Intel) Barely Matter Anymore
Microsoft is the next Intel basically
[Meme] The Web Wasn't Always Proprietary Computer Programs Disguised as 'Web Pages'
The Web is getting worse each year
Re-de-centralisation Should Be Our Goal
Put the users in charge, not governments and corporations in charge of users
Gemini Links 19/11/2024: Rain Music, ClockworkPi DevTerm, and More
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, November 18, 2024
Links 18/11/2024: Science News and War Escalations in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 18/11/2024: Degrowth and OpenBSD Fatigue
Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part VII
By Dr. Andy Farnell
BetaNews is Still 'Shitposting' About Trump and Porn (Two Analysers Say This 'Shitposting' Comes From LLMs)
Probably some SEO garbage, prompted with words like "porn" and "trump" to stitch together other people's words
Market Share of Vista 11 Said to be Going Down in Europe
one plausible explanation is that gs.statcounter.com is actually misreporting the share of Vista 11, claiming that it's higher than it really is
Fourth Estate or Missing Fourth Pillar
"The term Fourth Estate or fourth power refers to the press and news media in explicit capacity of reporting the News" -Wikipedia on Fourth Estate
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, November 17, 2024
LLMs Are Not a Form of Intelligence (They Never Will Be)
Butterflies are smarter than "chatGPT"
Business Software Alliance (BSA), Microsoft, and AstroTurfing Online (Also in the Trump Administration Groomed by BSA and Microsoft)
Has Washington become openWashington? Where the emphasis is openwashing rather than Open(Source)Washington?
Windows at 1%
Quit throwing taxpayers' money at Microsoft, especially when it fails to fulfil basic needs and instead facilitates espionage by foreign and very hostile nations
Links 17/11/2024: Pakistan Broke, Tyson 'Crashes' or Knocks Over Netflix
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/11/2024: Nachtigall Planned, Exodus at Twitter
Links for the day
Links 17/11/2024: China's Diplomacy and Gazprom Setback
Links for the day
Sudan Has Reached a State of Android Domination (93% Market Share, All-Time High According to statCounter)
countries at war buy fewer laptops?
[Meme] Just Do It?
'FSF' Europe (Microsoft) and FSF
Microsoft Front Groups Against the FSF, Home of GPL, GNU, and Free Software
Much of the money (not all of it) comes from the criminals at Redmond
Centralisation is Dooming the Web, RSS is One Workaround (But Not "Planets")
At least Gemini Protocol rejects centralisation
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, November 16, 2024
Links 17/11/2024: Wars, Bailouts, and Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/11/2024: Changing Interests and HamsterCMS
Links for the day