A punitive puppeteer?

While we're on the subject of license enforcement, let me throw in a term one alert reader just spotted in the license for FrontPage 2002. "You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services ... " the license reads in part. Good thing InfoWorld doesn't use FrontPage 2002 to post this column, I guess.

So let's see: Microsoft is trying to control how customers use OEM software, trying to control when customers upgrade its products, trying to control when customers upgrade their hardware, and trying to control what customers say about Microsoft. I think I see a pattern.

What we can expect from Microsoft in the future is more of the same. Every move the company makes seems to take us one step closer to a world where it is Microsoft that makes the decisions, not the customer. If we didn't know it already, it's pretty clear now that the courts aren't going to restrain Microsoft from controlling its market. The only one who can do that is the person starring back at you in the mirror.
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