Mr. Carmack - I, being a law student, am asking you for a job. It seems you do not have a good lawyer on your payroll. Remember the fiasco a fellow game maker had with their program that pulled info off user's hard drives ("StarCraft" ring a bell?) Simply put, if I did what your program did, even though it is pulling seemlingly safe information from the unknowing (read: cannot be used against the computer/person it is coming from) I would go to jail. Period. I suggest you make it painfully obvious to the purchaser and let them easily opt out. (read: make the computer game do it, not have to have the user find some little command from one of your e-mails.) When in doubt, put it out where your user can see it. Further, I am ashamed at your reaction. If you see that your actions are upsetting your customers, then quit doing those actions. Otherwise, you may lose those customers. Also, just because you are making this a part of your information gathering, there seeems to be a lack of security. Can just anyone collect this info? Say, video card producers, trying to find out how better to sell their cards? Can that code be somehow adjusted so that other less honest people can gain info of the user? Never claim incompetence as a defense, that just means your actions are a negligence tort, not an intentional one. hvymtl@netzero.net
Slashdot Mirror
Mr. Carmack - I, being a law student, am asking you for a job. It seems you do not have a good lawyer on your payroll. Remember the fiasco a fellow game maker had with their program that pulled info off user's hard drives ("StarCraft" ring a bell?) Simply put, if I did what your program did, even though it is pulling seemlingly safe information from the unknowing (read: cannot be used against the computer/person it is coming from) I would go to jail. Period. I suggest you make it painfully obvious to the purchaser and let them easily opt out. (read: make the computer game do it, not have to have the user find some little command from one of your e-mails.) When in doubt, put it out where your user can see it. Further, I am ashamed at your reaction. If you see that your actions are upsetting your customers, then quit doing those actions. Otherwise, you may lose those customers. Also, just because you are making this a part of your information gathering, there seeems to be a lack of security. Can just anyone collect this info? Say, video card producers, trying to find out how better to sell their cards? Can that code be somehow adjusted so that other less honest people can gain info of the user? Never claim incompetence as a defense, that just means your actions are a negligence tort, not an intentional one. hvymtl@netzero.net