Peking University student Lu Feng believes that Microsoft's
newly launched "WGA Notification" program violates his safety of
personal information and his privacy. He decided to bring both
Microsoft Corporation and Microsoft (China) Co. Ltd. before the
court, and recently the First Intermediate People's Court of
Beijing accepted this case.
Lu Feng's indictment stated that he installed the "WGA
Notification" program according to the prompts of the automatic
update of the Windows XP system. Later he found that this is a
program to verify whether the Windows XP installed in the computer
of the plaintiff is genuine software or not. The defendant,
Microsoft, could gather the computer information and personal
information of the plaintiff through executing this program on a
regular basis and sending it back to Microsoft Corporation online.
This method could not only verify whether the users' software is
original or not but also obtain all kinds of information from the
users.
Lu Feng thought that this program posed a great threat to the
information safety of his computer and his privacy and prevented
users from exercising their property rights toward their computers.
Moreover, in the process of installing the program, Microsoft
Corporation excluded his legal rights through a formal contract and
failed in their duty to inform him, therefore impinging upon the
legal rights and interests enjoyed by the consumers and end
users.
Lu Feng requested the court to order the defendant to delete the
computer information and the personal information of the plaintiff,
provide an unload tool to delete the "WGA Notification" program
installed in the defendant's computer, make an apology in a
national newspaper, and pay 1,350 yuan (US$88.28) in compensation
for losses.
Yesterday, regarding this case, the public manager of Microsoft
Li Kejia sent a message to the reporter asserting that, "We've
already received the notice of this case from the court. And we'll
not give any comments to the case at present in accordance with the
policies of the company."
This past March, Microsoft launched its "WGA Notification" for
its Windows XP. Microsoft claimed that as a verification tool, "WGA
Notification" could help users to recognize whether their Windows
software in operation is original or not and help the users with
non-original software to take appropriate actions to safeguard
their computer system against the dangers and risks brought about
by the counterfeit software.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, September 12, 2007)
