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MS Zone Users Must Use Passport Accounts
pathos writes: "CNet reports in this article that Microsoft, in its continued obsession to get everyone and his/her mother to be a registered Passport user, forced all of it's MS Zone gaming site users (including players of 'Asheron's Call') to open accounts in Passport in order to keep using the service... too bad that a bug with their .NET deployment kept many users not being able to access the service..." Of course, if you run the hotel, you get to say who uses the pool ...
I hate Microsoft as much as the next *nix guy, but this makes sense to me. If you're going to push a single account/password strategy, you need to implement it yourself first.
.NET and Passport. For myself, I'll just continue to choose not to use any Microsoft web services.
If you are going to use Microsoft web services, you have to get used to
But the whole point of passport was to provide a single continous logon throughout the MSN suite of web sites.
Why is Zone.com any different?
Of course, it looks a little different if you consider things from a business perspective. If you're a company that has 7 different login and authentication systems for their wide array of services, and you could centralize that for cost savings, wouldn't you do it? I would.
The problem with Microsoft is that later down the line someone will say "we should use this massive pile of user data we've got to get volunteers to test our new free brain implants."
Not everything Microsoft does is evil, it's just usually the last thing that they do that turns everything they've done before evil.
And if I violate the ToS for any Microsoft service, do I get my passport pulled so that I can no longer access my Hotmail account or anything else that requires it?
I know we've said this before, but whenever Passport allows access to everyone bank account and stock portfolio the Passport servers will the the target of every black-hat hacker on the planet. And you know that script kiddies will be blasting it constantly with DOS attacks.
I'm sure MS will have excuses for why it happened to, like published security holes and such. But it will be their fault for leaving so much critical information linked to one account.
-Xenopax
Here's a question for people to ponder. What happens if I violate the terms of service of Passport or any attached property of Microsoft? Or more to the point, what happens if Microsoft mistakenly thinks I did but I didn't (like if I was hacked, etc). It seems that as Passport is further extended, this has a greater and greater impact on my ability to do things on-line. What if my bank uses passport? What if I communicate with my doctor through a passport secured site? If I get booted from passport for whatever reason, there could be some serious personal ramifications, and there's noreal recourse for me because I clicked the little "I Accept" button.
I grant you this is a little out there and paranoid, but I think that if passport does become a very fundamental part of on-line authorization systems, this could become a potential problem
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It remindes me of Tandy's long-bankrupt Incredible Universe, which wouldn't let you in the the door without a credit check. Hmm, I wonder why they're no longer in business?
If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
aware.
98% of all usable land. Now, if they did, and they
insisted that some African goat-herder who has
never even heard of the US be a US citizen in
order to continue herding goats, you could expect
a bit of a protest. Quite a bit of a protest.
The point is not that Microsoft is doing something
wrong, because they DO own the service and they DO
therefore have a say on how it is used.
The point is that they have monopoly control on
the desktop, they have monopoly control on the
browser market, and they are rapidly acquiring a
monopoly on the online gaming industry. The
leverage of a monopoly in ONE field to control
another is illegal, never mind three!
And therein lies the problem. The control is not
at issue. It is the abuse of monopoly power in a
seperate field, in order to gain that control,
which is so often the problem. You are simply not
permitted that kind of power, in the US. At least,
in theory. It's not slowed Microsoft any, even
though their actions have been declared illegal,
by numerous courts, over monopoly abuse.
(And here you were, thinking Monopoly was just a
board game!)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
This has nothing to do with rights. Well, it does, but it has to do with Microsoft's rights. They have a right to use whatever authentication system for their web pages that they choose.
You, as the average internet consumer do not have a right to access some companies pages without using the access mechanism that they choose. You do have a right to not grace that company with your business, though.
Really, can someone explain to me all of the mis-directed righteous indignation at Microsoft over this? It's a non-issue. If you don't like what MS has done with the Zone...tough. Just go play elsewhere.