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Microsoft Patents the Mother of All Adware
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica has an article on the mother of all adware patents filed by Microsoft: 'It's such a tremendously bad idea that it's almost bound to succeed. Microsoft has filed another patent, this one for an "advertising framework" that uses "context data" from your hard drive to show you advertisements and "apportion and credit advertising revenue" to ad suppliers in real time.' Ars discusses this disturbing concept, which was originally unearthed by Information Week and we first discussed last week."
I wonder, if my hard drive is filled with pirated Microsoft software, will they show me advertisements for The Pirate Bay?
this is a horrible idea. Using the client's whole computer, hard drive contents included, to sell ads is just wrong.
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
We can only hope that this makes it into an early service pack for Vista, and that Microsoft announces it poorly, resulting wholesale defection of their corporate user-base to Apple and Linux-based desktops.
This is one of the rare times that I approve of a software patent, for two reasons:
1. This patent will prevent other people from doing the same thing, and
2. If MS actually does this, more people will leave Windows behind.
Thomas Galvin
Isn't this exactly what Google Desktop and Google Mail and Google Cookies do?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
According to the patent application, "The benefit to the user is the perception that the ads are more relevant, and therefore, less of an interruption."
For me, ads that look more like the content that I actually want to read are more of an interruption because it takes me longer to differentiate between the important content and the crap.
Microsoft has such a cynically exploitative view of the market that they truly prove that large corporations can be psychotic.
While the rest of the economy maintains some kind of pretense of "ethics", Microsoft seem to have decided that not a single rule counts. They mock the EU's anti-trust actions, they rape the ISO process, and they screw their loyal customers more often than that guy in Oz.
No-one is going to shed a tear when they are up against the wall.
My blog
According to TFA:
"The software would also free advertising from its traditional browser yoke. "A word processor may display a banner ad along the top of a window, similar to a toolbar, while a graphical ad may be displayed in a frame associated with the application. A digital editor for photos or movies may support video-based advertisements," the patent application says.
So no, Adblock in its current form wouldn't do squat.
this might be the mother of all adware, but MS might get to say "who's your daddy?"
...I say let them. There is no way my organization would ever stand for this sort of data mining; They'll leave windows far far behind before this happens.
That said, for a company of MS's financial strength, filing a patent is a trivial process; Therefore they will patent what they think of and consider it a resource to be used for whatever purpose at a later date. I highly doubt they actually have plans to put this in an OS.
I've been wrong before of course.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
You'll have agreed to this in the EULA. Under the section where they reserve the right to install whatever updates they like.
"Oh no! My Windows machine screen is full up with porn advertisements"
You mean that their "ad framework" is an unpatched copy if Internet Explorer? I think there's a LOT of prior art on that one, from drive-by installs, malware, viruses, trojans, etc.
Kevin Smith on Prince
I wonder, if my hard drive is filled with pirated Microsoft software, will they show me advertisements for The Pirate Bay?
Yes, you will get advertising for The Pirate Bay, but don't be fooled -- every other computer near you will get advertisements for the BSA.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
You'll have agreed to this in the EULA. Under the section where they reserve the right to install whatever updates they like.
Oh, that'll fly.
*in the nebulous future*
Me: Well, in order to get the latest security update, we have to install the service that scans our hard drives in order to provide targeted advertising.
CIO: What? Repeat that.
Me: Ummm. Well, Microsoft's latest service pack installs a service that gathers information from the files on your hard disks in order to provide more targeted ads an-
CIO: Like FUCK it does. I don't fucking care how you do it, block that fucker from running. You go do that now - I'm calling our Microsoft rep to have a little chat...
As far as I can see, this will die on the vine.
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
Let's hope someone gets this bad boy working under WINE.
/Sarcasm
This strikes me as too intrusive for anyone to accept on a paid piece of software, but maybe MS is considering someday giving Windows away for free in exchange for the user having to watch ads? They already know that people pirate their products and no matter what they do, someone will crack the piracy. Someone will probably crack the ad stuff, too, but Aunt Tillie may not mind if she can get a cheap box that let's her send email and exchange pictures of her rose bushes and grandkids.
Or MS will give up the "cripple your unlicensed windows copy" and just turn on ads if you fail WGA. Piracy problem solved. Download it and watch ads, or pay us and don't. Either way you can still surf the web and play solitaire.
I suppose there's also the possibility of using something like this on kiosks or other public and/or shared terminals.
There has to be more to this than just sticking ads on licensed copies of Windows.
Given that patents can be awarded for '(existing idea) but on the internet', I wonder if the formulation '(existing idea) over my dead body' is also allowable?
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Sure implementing this patent would be pretty damn evil and intrusive IF it was just foisted on the public. However, we have no reason to believe MS intends to do anything of the kind.
For starters they may be patenting this 'technology' (it's kinda obvious) defensively to prevent other people from implementing it (even as an 3rd party addition to windows). Alternatively they may be planning to offer special free computers to people who agree to be subject to this sort of invasive advertising. I don't like the idea myself but if other people are fairly informed and want to get their free computer anyway why should I tell them they shouldn't?
If you liked this thought maybe you would find my blog nice too:
The only thing between us and quiet dinners is a patent on telemarketing.
The only thing between us and world peace is a patent on warfare.
And, the only thing between me and a karma deficit is a patent on insightful commentary.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
I stopped watching television altogether a few years ago, aside from the occasional SNL when I remember it's on (yea I know, SNL isn't funny, save it). I just find the commercials really disgusting. Whenever I do catch tv now, say when I get bored of staring at my thumbs while visiting relitives, the ads really make me queasy, physically not figuratively. Something about the rapid ramp up of music and the incessant talking, those earworm jingles. There's no silence between commercials anymore, not even a small blip. One just feeds right into the next with their micro-plots and wild changes of tone. It bothers me that so much talent and work goes into making something so disposable. They're really engineered at a fundamental level to get into your mind and stay there, and I think that's something way more insidious than most people realize.
The other day I went into best buy and bought a $30 bluetooth adapter. The cashier asked if I wanted a $10 2-year warranty on the thing. I firmly declined and as she went on explaining the benefits of this program I felt less and less happy to be shopping in a brick & mortar store. The cashier was just doing her job but I still wanted to strangle whatever marketting exec makes them do that. I find generally all advertising really off-putting anymore. I know what the hell I want to buy, I don't get sold things. I'll take a psych test to prove it. I know it works well on lots of sheeple, but let me opt out damn you.
My point is, I'm getting pretty hostile to marketting, and as far as I can help it I won't have any more business with MS if they engage seriously in this strategy. There's enough spam out there, it really doesn't belong anywhere in a fundamental part of an OS.
We can only hope that this makes it into an early service pack for Vista, and that Microsoft announces it poorly, resulting wholesale defection of their corporate user-base to Apple and Linux-based desktops.
We can only hope this is what Ballmer means by M$ services. The whole crapware industry that Softies point to when it comes to Dell selling gnu/linux is prior art, but that has never kept M$ from claiming invention.
A more disturbing possibility is they only obviously implement this on crappy free ware versions of Windoze and then claim Google is violating their patents. This would be both a FUD and judicial assault, much like the SCO case. They will, of course, continue the worst practices themselves while claiming innocence and smearing everyone else.
Does anyone need more evidence to abandon non free software?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
"involving your ass with some ascii: Microsoft -> you (pre-patent) ( o ) microsoft -> you (post-patent) ( O ) any questions?"
Are you saying my fluffy bunny tail will get even fluffier after the patent? Woohoo!!!
I suppose it could just be me, but it sure seems obvious what they're doing here. They're trying to acquire a patent defense against Google. Google's raking them over the coals about desktop search - and it's pretty clear how Google would go about making money off desktop search: targeted advertising.
So Microsoft is trying to get a defensive patent to prevent Google from leveraging the OS as an ad-serving mechanism. The proximate motive for this is, I believe, probably to use as ammo against Google in the current dispute, and certainly in the inevitable near- and mid-term disputes.
Which is not to say that MS itself won't implement a tech like this in some fashion at some point, but I'm in agreement with some other posters that it will be a free/cheap version of Windows. They're just not short-sighted enough to try and shovel this into the enterprise; it would be the end of Windows upgrades for business if they did.
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Here's this OS. You see, it's a $1200 OS. You have 2 choices:
1) $600 + adware. See, you get a discount, so it's OK for us to spy on you.
2) $1200, without adware. 3) Thank you for your offer, Mr. Gates, but intercourse you, I'm buying a $1000 PC and installing Ubuntu.
4) Thank you for your offer, Mr. Gates, but intercourse you, I'm buying a Mac.
> 3) Thank you for your offer, Mr. Gates, but intercourse you, I'm buying a $1000 PC and installing Ubuntu.
Nice sentiment but take a moment to consider what the actual offer will be:
Option #1, the Dell M-Box, brought to you by Pepsi (this month, next month another sponsor....).
Plays mainstream media. Meaning everything on sale at Best Buy/Walmart in the movie, music and games depts. Cable TV will be delivered through it. Allowed to connect to the Internet and perform E-Commerce, required for E-Voting, filing your taxes and renewing your driver's license. Can run Microsoft Office, required to interchange documents via Microsoft Hotmail, the only approved mail service since they merged with the Postal Service. The only way to transfer content to your iPod. (Even in a total distopia I can't see the Zune beating the iPod at this point.)
Not allowed to run any unsigned binaries.
Option #2,
Buy a PC on the grey market and install Ubuntu. You can run anything you like but you won't connect to the Internet with it, at least legally. There will be hacks to allow basic IP access but no major website will allow you to connect because your browser won't bear the mark of the beast. Generate too much traffic out on the dark net and you will get noticed so P2P will be right out. Warez will of course not cease, just return to face to face exchange of really high capacity media, Linux will of course be part of that warez scene since after the Patent Wars any useful program will be in violation of at least one and therefore illegal to traffic in and also comply with the GPL.
Now, how many people will actually pick Option #2? They won't even have to police the gray market too hard, no more than they pretend to fight the War on Some Drugs. Just the social stigma of being outlaw will keep it safely contained to a ghetto.
Democrat delenda est