Article-I.D.: trsvax.53400078
Posted: Tue Sep 24 18:20:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Sep-85 04:55:09 EDT
Lines: 28
Nf-ID: #N:trsvax:53400078:000:1427
Nf-From: trsvax!gm    Sep 24 17:20:00 1985


This was an article which appeared in this week's (Sep 24) "PC Week". I 
thought it was kind of funny. Reproduced without permission, of course.
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     What do you do when your program summarily announces that it is "Trashing
Program Disk"? It happened to us while we were reviewing Microsoft Access--a 
new telecommunication program. We had diligently performed the hard-disk
installation and had successfully run the program a dozen or more times.
Suddenly we were assaulted with an error message that struck fear into our
hearts:

			Internal Security Violation
		    The tree of evil bears bitter fruit
			     Crime does not pay
			      The Shadow knows

     And finally the punchline: "Trashing Program Disk." Since the "program
disk" was our system's hard disk, this was no laughing matter. Luckily,
Access didn't really destroy all our work--it merely deepened our animosity
toward copy protection.
     Microsoft's response was unsatisfactory. "Don't worry about it," a
spokesman said, "It really doesn't do any damage."
     That's debatable. Clearly, Microsoft's snide message is intended to be
displayed when copy protection is circumvented. When sloppy programming
allows such foolishness to frighten and insult a legitimate user, however,
that's unforgivable.
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Article-I.D.: persci.419
Posted: Fri Sep 27 01:23:08 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Sep-85 06:39:27 EDT
References: <53400078@trsvax>
Organization: Summation Inc, Woodinville WA
Lines: 9

> 
>      What do you do when your program summarily announces that it is "Trashing
> Program Disk"? It happened to us while we were reviewing Microsoft Access--a 

Call your lawyer. If you bought it legitimately, you could have quite a field
day.

-- 
William Swan  {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!persci!bill

Article-I.D.: celerity.356
Posted: Wed Oct  2 14:35:05 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 14:50:50 EDT
References: <53400078@trsvax>
Reply-To: sdo@celerity.UUCP (Steve Oualline)
Organization: Celerity Computing, San Diego, Ca.
Lines: 53

In article <53400078@trsvax> gm@trsvax writes:
>
>     What do you do when your program summarily announces that it is "Trashing
>Program Disk"? It happened to us while we were reviewing Microsoft Access--a 
>new telecommunication program. We had diligently performed the hard-disk
>installation and had successfully run the program a dozen or more times.
>Suddenly we were assaulted with an error message that struck fear into our
>hearts:
>
>			Internal Security Violation
>		    The tree of evil bears bitter fruit
>			     Crime does not pay
>			      The Shadow knows
>
>     And finally the punchline: "Trashing Program Disk." 

If this happened to me I would write the following letter to Microsoft:


Dear Microsoft,

	I was running a legal copy of Microsfot Access when it displayed the 
message "Trashing Program Disk".   The program disk I was using was my 40 meg
hard disk.  I examined the disk and it looked like all my programs and 
data were intact.  However I could not be sure that your program did
not trash any of the program or data files by modifing them is a subtle way.

	I had to re-install all the programs that were on my hard disk to
insure that they were ok.  I also had to examine all my data files to make
sure that your program did not trash them.  This process took 5 hours of
my time.

	Your neglience in allowing such a program to exist and the malicious
error message that resulted cost me 5 hours of time.  My time is worth
$25.00 an hour, so you owe me $125.00.

	If I do not receive a check within two weeks I will turn this
matter over to the courts.



					Sincerely


						Joe User

---------------------------------
If they did not respond within 2 weeks, I would file suit in small claims
court.  

Software manufactures should never install malicious copy protection in 
their software.  We as users must take strong action against this type
of programming.

Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.2027
Posted: Wed Oct  9 17:19:30 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 18:56:19 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Lines: 46

In response to the suggestion that Microsoft's protection scheme that oh-so
cleverly prints:

>			Internal Security Violation
>		    The tree of evil bears bitter fruit
>			     Crime does not pay
>			      The Shadow knows
>
>     And finally the punchline: "Trashing Program Disk." 

and either does or does not trash the disk as it promises, I should point
out that the standard legal disclaimer that comes with almost all software
says that the manufacturer and/or distributor of the software cannot be
held liable in any way for virtually ANYTHING that goes wrong, including
doom, despair or agony of any kind.

Over on the info-amiga list, someone mentioned that they had tried the
IBM-emulator and had this same message appear ( for a legal copy of Microsoft
Word, I believe ) and had yanked the disk from the drive before it could
carry out the threat.

Given that at any particular moment, I might want to use a program for which 
I paid good money on any number of look-alike machines or other
configurations, I would have to say:

***FLAME ON***
DON'T BUY DISKS THAT ARE PROTECTED IN THIS "RETRIBUTIVE" FASHION!!!
***FLAME OFF***

If it refuses to boot or execute, I can live with that. I'll take it back
to the dealer and get a refund. That much of a warranty is required by law,
and no disclaimer on the package can get around it.

In point of fact, I think that this kind of disclaimer should be tested in
court, given the kind of behavior described above.
Either: the message is an empty threat, in which case I think people with
valid copies have a right to sue for unnecessary emotional distress, or
the message means what it says, and the disk is formatted or otherwise
"trashed" in short order, in which case the valid owner is owed at the
very least reimbursement for the time it takes him to get another copy from
the dealer or Microsoft.

Of course, REAL pirates deserve what happens to them, but we are talking
about valid users of paid software.

Remember this when you get out in the real world and do this yourself.

Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1757
Posted: Tue Oct 15 10:14:28 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 16-Oct-85 04:59:11 EDT
References: <2027@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Reply-To: rsellens@watdcsu.UUCP (Rick Sellens - Mech. Eng.)
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 45
Summary: 

In article <2027@brl-tgr.ARPA> bro@RICE.ARPA (Doug Monk) writes:
>In response to the suggestion that Microsoft's protection scheme that oh-so
>cleverly prints:
>
>>			Internal Security Violation
>>		    The tree of evil bears bitter fruit
>>			     Crime does not pay
>>			      The Shadow knows
>>
>>     And finally the punchline: "Trashing Program Disk." 
>
.
.
>***FLAME ON***
>DON'T BUY DISKS THAT ARE PROTECTED IN THIS "RETRIBUTIVE" FASHION!!!
>***FLAME OFF***

Agree Fully!!!!!!!!!  (But how do you know?)

>Of course, REAL pirates deserve what happens to them, but we are talking
>about valid users of paid software.

I suspect disk trashing is both morally and legally equivalent to
setting a "man trap" against tresspassers. If you maliciously set
a trap to damage others, you will (under common law) be liable for
those damages, even if they were tresspassing when the damage was
done. (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and may not be correct)

It seems to me that the position of common law is that even REAL
pirates don't deserve this sort of trap. And then, what about the 
guy who takes a copy of a piece of software to try it out? 
I personally don't feel this is wrong (as opposed to legal/illegal),
but that guy might unwittingly wind up with his hard disk trashed.

The use of a disk trasher is at best a grossly irresponsible act
and at worst criminally negligent. It is upsetting to see such
action, even if only a threat, from a large, presumably respectable
corporation like Microsoft.


Rick Sellens
UUCP:     watmath!watdcsu!rsellens
CSNET:    rsellens%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet
ARPA:     rsellens%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
Physical: 372A Churchill Court, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada  N2L 6B4

Article-I.D.: bgsuvax.764
Posted: Thu Oct 17 08:13:12 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Oct-85 04:39:48 EDT
References: <2027@brl-tgr.ARPA>, <1757@watdcsu.UUCP>
Organization: Bowling Green State University, OH
Lines: 27

If I remember correctly, Microsoft is on this net.  Does anyone from Microsoft
wish to respond to this?

Hello?  Is anyone from Microsoft out there?

-- 

"Don't blame me, I'm only the keyboard man . . . "
                                                   
Phil Ritzenthaler                                  |
                                               #  \-/  #     and you call this
UUCP : cbosgd!osu-eddie!bgsuvax!ritzenth        ##   ##          GRAPHICS?
CSNET: ritzenth@bgsu                              ###
ARPA : ritzenth%bgsu.csnet@csnet-relay

USnail:	University Computer Services
      	Academic User Services
      	Math-Science 238
      	Bowling Green State University
      	Bowling Green, OHIO   43403
Phone: (419) 372-2102

****************************************************************************
**  Any opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect the opinion **
  **   of my employer, fellow workers, wife, son, neighbors, friends,   **   
        ***       or any other compatible human life form.        ***
        *************************************************************