Vista - Is it A Violation of Civil Liberties

'Thinking about the forced WGA Notifications that is coming in Vista [and
about the changing of the rules on retail bought copies], I started
wondering if Microsoft is positioning itself to be dragged into court again
... not for monopolisitc practice .. but worse .. for violation of civil
rights.

Forced WGA N invades privacy [reports yout IP address among many things,
essentially locating you and or your home, personally] and it assumes guilt
of some criminal act - i.e. it is there checking for piracy and at
Microsoft's whim tries, judges, convicts and punsishes - and it does so
without warrant. Even the police need a warrant to search your place and
they certainly cannot try, convict and punish. But, on the otherhand,
Microsoft doesn't feel it needs to pay heed to anything as bothersome as a
civil liberty. It's sole law is its own EULA.

Personally, and I am not a lawyer, but some obscure little blurb in an EULA
does't give Microsoft the right to violate the consumer's basic civil
liberties to such a sweeping extent - especially in an age when computers
are becoming essential to get work done and communicate. Like I said, even
the police can't do a search and seizure without a warrant from a judge. Let
alone try, convict and punish.

But even worse, Microsoft, on its whim, having locked a person out of their
computer has essentially commited its own act of copyright violation [or
even perhaps theft] by blocking access to ones documents and electronic
papers. So it violates civil liberties and it commits a copyright offence
and it commits an offence of interference.

I really think Microsoft should back off on forced WGA Notifications [or
whatever they call it in Vista]. It stinks, is foul and will probably land
them both civil lawsuit and criminal indictment.