13 replies to this topic

[killua]

Let me explain the situation.

I want to play BF2 online. I installed the game. Entered the code. Downloaded the update. Installed BF2. Restarted after the download finished. Installed the update. Looking up the IP adress of the server where I can expect BoD* people and all that kind of stuff.

*bod is a small cz community at www.bodclan.org.uk

(it was already 2 o clock in the morning!)

I tried to join. It worked marvelous. Until I wanted to play. I got kicked with the error message of punkbuster: Inadequate O/S Priveledges.
So I tried it again this evening to no avail. Then I removed BF2 and then I reinstalled it again. Restarted. Installed update and in the meanwhile writing this rant.

So then I started to think about some things.

Windows activation for example. Punkbuster whining. Steam (the gaming platform. Not the cloud that you get when you boil water). And more of those things.

Then I started to think some more. All the things that have changed recently in the gaming/ICT business have only changed for the worst from the moment shortly after xDSL became available.

Steam went into large updates. Allot of online commercial (spam). New virusses (welchia).
Newer games and Intel who sucks up money like hell with their CPU's and as soon as a new line is started the prices drop like mad. AMD also dropping their prices like hell.

While I was thinking like that I came to a conclusion.

Steam is doing illegal things (Letting us first buy a product to activate it trough inet and then it still needs to be unlocked. No possibility of offline gaming or anything like that).

The cheat scanner program doing illegal things (scanning all directories and not being clear on what is being sended onto the internet).

m$ doing illegal things (WGA).




Then it all became clear to me. Those fucking rotten companies are only after our money. If I join a server I want to join a server. I dont want to see any fucking banners. I fucking paid for that game. If I pay for something then I decide what I want to see in the game. Not steam.

They clearly do not know the dutch law. And the gamers also do not know the law.

I pay for my DSL. I accidently installed the WGA thingy. And unfortunatly I do not keep connection records in my router since I dropped the Linux project.


Who is paying for my xDSl??
I am paying for it not Steam not M$ hell not even some crappy smarty ass programmer who thinks he can be smart to make a cheat scanner.
All these companies just think that they can do anything they want. And the dutch are so damned croocked that they just accept it.

If I had money I would just see m$ in court.
Firt for the activation of Windows. (I FUCKING PAID FOR MY LICENSE SO WHY CHEK IT IF I REINSTALL MY COMPUTER??? :S)
Second the WGA call home tool (WTF IS IT SENDING. WHY CANT I REMOVE IT. WHY AM I NOT ENLIGHTENED THAT IT WOULD SEND DATA TO M$?)

Same thing for Steam.
WTF ARE THEY THINKING PUTTING COMMERCIALS IN PAID GAMES??? I paid for a game and I did not give them permission to advertise gaming service or anything else.

Next thing is the fact that if I buy something that I have paid for it. If I install it then I expect it to play offline without the hassle of first downloading the unlock files and then registering the key.
Stand allone allow them to show their own update news on the startup. Steam was installed at my place trough the CZ dvd and the HL2 DVD. So why would I accept their commercials?
If I pay money for a product then I own the License to use that product as I see fit as long as it is within the bounds of the law. If I want to create a MOD on a game then I am allowed to do so.

Basically you could say that Steam is infected with adware. It shows commercials and you can not dissable them.
m$ is one big spyware company.
Is it just me or is this going on just recently (since 4 years almost).


Dutch law is different from other local laws. But the things M$ are doing are illegal everywhere.

The things Steam are doing are also ILLEGAL. They put ads in their software while I do not request ad's in them nor do I agree to the use of system resources to download news bulletins of new games/updates.

If I rent a xDSL connection then i am paying for the data that is send over that line. Thus I decide what is requested and what not. What is accepted and what not. What is send and what not.
This is just plain in every country. If you pay for something then you own it. If you rent it then you can decide within the law offcorse what you will do with it.


This message will also be posted on a few other forums. If I get enough feedback i may even consider sending it to the dutch government. I am sure that this is a thing that is currently playing in this world considering everybody is so terrified of terrorism. While those companies are actually supporting and giving method's for cyber terrorism.
Spyware, Adware. In the current day we do not control the computer. The software companies control our computer basically while we DID NOT give them permission to do so.


oh and on a second note.
I heard that the license agreement or m$ does not count here in the dutch.
I do not know if it is true or not.


And with this the rant is over. Now I only hope that my english inst as bad as my memory is

[MSpencer]

They do have to make money off of advertising, and checking your files against the server's files (What it really is doing) is hardly a breach of privacy, considering you agreed to the EULA.

[killua]

That is punkbuster. But the error it is saying is not correct. I only want to play the stupid game without any hustle. So that is the rant about punkbuster.

And I do not pay for advertising. I paid for a game. not for their lazy asses.


The dutch law prohibits advertising such advertisements.

Edited by killua, 27 August 2006 - 12:47 AM.

[Banshee]

When you click 'I agree' in the software liscense display, you agree with whatever they do in your computer. If you reject it, you can't install the software. It is that simple, unfortunatelly. They've made a contract with you and you accepted. So, if you sue them, you'll loose the cause.

For these reasons, it's always interesting to consider free software and alternatives . (and better games )

[chemical ali]

m$ is one big spyware company.
Is it just me or is this going on just recently (since 4 years almost).


Dutch law is different from other local laws. But the things M$ are doing are illegal everywhere.

No your an idiot, Dutch law oh noes!!!! What does that mean you can't stick your hand in a dyke on a sunday.

Microsoft is not a spyware company fool. If your PC failed WGA get a legal copy you tart. As a PC tech,

1. WPA only checks your product key and hardware, if its changed 60% then you need a reactivation or you installed SP2. If you can't activate over the internet just ring the number and it works.

2. WGA only phones home to check to make sure that your pc is not running a warez XP or that in the event there was a mass WGA failure that it wouln't brand perfectly legal copies of XP as illegal copies. If you want to have a up to date working and secure PC then you need Microsoft Updates.

3.The moment you tick 'I accept these terms and coniditons in the EULA' you surrender everything, no one reads EULA's.

[killua]

LOL

I agree to theur terms of use. And steam did not say that they remain the right to put advertisements into the program.

Thus their actions are considered illegal here in the dutch.

Futhermore there is a law stating that it is not allowed to send unwanted commercials (spam)

I consider the images spam of my game play/game loading.
It is already spam as soon as it is being saved to your comp what is happening. Since it could not be displayed if it is not saved on your comp. I think it is in the temp dir else it is in the steam dir itself.

and furthermore.

I never agreed to let Microsoft use the WGA call back home thingy. That is what I am talking about. I did not give them permission to use it. You do not know what it is sending. And if you want to remove it you cant. It does not stand in the software dialoge. And I do have a legal license for XP.

Edited by killua, 27 August 2006 - 12:57 AM.

[chemical ali]

I never agreed to let Microsoft use the WGA call back home thingy. That is what I am talking about. I did not give them permission to use it. You do not know what it is sending. And if you want to remove it you cant. It does not stand in the software dialoge. And I do have a legal license for XP.

All it does is phone home to check that its not faceing a massive failing like if perhaps a large corporations corporate copy failed meaning 1000's of pcs were failing WGA. And yes I do know what its sending, talking to a Microsoft OEM partnership speaker about this, he said this is what it was designed to 'phone home' for, it sends nothing. WGA will only install if you do the updates, so if you let automatic updates or went on windows update and clicked 'I accept this license agreement to instal Windows Genuine Advantage' then Microsoft didn't do it for you. You can remove it, there are plenty of removal tools around for it though I don't know why seeing as then Windows Defender, IE7 and loads of other programes wont install.

Anyway if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.

[Mastermind]

LOL

I agree to theur terms of use. And steam did not say that they remain the right to put advertisements into the program.

Thus their actions are considered illegal here in the dutch.

Futhermore there is a law stating that it is not allowed to send unwanted commercials (spam)

I consider the images spam of my game play/game loading.
It is already spam as soon as it is being saved to your comp what is happening. Since it could not be displayed if it is not saved on your comp. I think it is in the temp dir else it is in the steam dir itself.

I'm pretty sure that somewhere in the terms is something that authorizes them to do that. It may not be spelled out explicitly, but it is there.

and furthermore.

I never agreed to let Microsoft use the WGA call back home thingy. That is what I am talking about. I did not give them permission to use it. You do not know what it is sending. And if you want to remove it you cant. It does not stand in the software dialoge. And I do have a legal license for XP.

Yes, you did give permission. When the WGA tool was installed an additional EULA popped up prompting you to agree to the installation. WGA was not installed automatically, it required your authorization. Your installation and agreement to the terms of use authorized them to hae the tool phone home.

[killua]

ok, back to steam

i have installed steam trough cz and there was not any info in the eulla.

if they change the eulla they need to inform me about it (dutch law)

[DragonFly]

I agree on the Ad-Stuff in Steam, they should atleast put an Option to turn it away.

Also, you need internet to play Steam games, not that I bother, but other people might hate this, cause without steam, you can't play. And not everyone runs xDSL (O_O), I do.

Something is wrong with EULA's tough...

I buy Half-Life 2 GOTY edition in the Store.

I payed the full 50 euro.

I installed HL2 and the other stuff on it.

A message prompts: Install Steam

So I am like... No, I don't want Steam!

So I click no, and I can't play my game.

They made money, I can't play my game.

Thus, actually, they are scamming me. I MUST install Steam, to see their Ad's for other games and I am forced to patch my game.

I don't want that, so in fact. Steam is doing Illegal stuff, and I payed my 50 Euro.


I looked this up in Law Books (Dutch Law)

And this IS illegal.


So I agree with Killua.

[MSpencer]

Dutch law has the gravity of a grain of sand in the software world. If I produce a game which violates French or German law, even, it's not going to matter, those people are still going to buy the game.
If you think it's illegal, take the game, and throw it like a frisbee out the window. You agreed to the EULA, the EULA basically told you that whatever advertising they display is necessary, and you did agree to it.
So what? An ad here, an ad there. It's not like it's coming up like adware, it's just an embedded ad which makes them enough money to keep their servers up. Alternatively, you can pay $15/month to keep their servers running like any MMO in existence, or you can deal with advertising.

[Deathblow Luc]

WGA can still be removed with ease using Hijack This, btw...

[xjjohnno]

A few valid points there in regard to corporate intrusion into your privacy Killua.
When I installed XP I don't remeber Microshite asking me if they could install spyware in the form of WGA 4-5 years after I'd installed the Operating system.they did that via stealth.
As for the likes of Punkbuster and Steam.I bought games,not spyware,and regardless of the crap they put in their EULAs,they still do not have the right to contravene local consumer protection laws.We buy products called operating systems,games and software and don't need all the extras added via stealth.
If some of the folk here think it's acceptable that corporations subjugate their consumer rights via either dodgy EULAs or via stealth then I feel sorry for them and good on you for daring to say you have rights and challenging their arrogance.

[Torn]

LOL. Quit whining.

Steam isn't illegal. It's their attempt to stop losing money due to piracy and to offer a platform from which to buy their products. If you don't like it, don't play. No one is making you.

I don't think you understand it's people like you and other internet users who have forced game companies to put things like Punkbuster and steam activation, and whatever Microsoft uses to check that a copy of Windows is authentic, because people use hacks in games, and people pirate games, and operating systems.

It's the same kind of people who download windows then brag about it who moan about Microsoft checking that it's authentic.

Those fucking rotten companies are only after our money.

YOU DON'T SAY! Of course they are after your money. That's what companies want to do. Make money. And that makes them 'fucking rotten'?. Well, don't play their games then.

Advertising is in games to help cover costs and like Spence said to keep servers running, instead of you having to pay a subscription fee. I don't see whats wrong with it, you're just having a moan that your rights have been infringed wah wah wah, when they actually haven't been.

Oh, and you think Microsoft is so shit? Get the fuck out of their operating system then.