Re: [DotGNU]preventing slamming

[Barry Fitzgerald]

Ron Burk wrote:
> 
> >Feel free to explain how proprietizing our platform specs would keep
> >this from happening - as you stated in one of your last messages.  If
> >there is collusion between Microsoft and Website X concerning the data
> >that Website X is trusted with, how are we going to be responsible for
> >that?
> 
> I don't know how to stop it, but I reason that any solution
> would have to be legal rather than technical. I also reason
> that more complex dotGNU efforts are also vulnerable to
> slamming in some form or another.
> 
> Microsoft is not vulnerable to slamming because they are able
> to offer a proprietary solution -- they own the actual software
> on both the client and the server. They are able to force this
> solution to be installed on practically all new clients (and with
> XP, they will nearly force the end user to use it), but have
> been much less able to force servers to adopt it (partly because
> their server software does not enjoy the same monopoly share
> of the market). They can sue for any attempts to reverse engineer
> how their solution works and be compatible with it.
> 
> I don't see how dotGNU can both offer a proprietary solution
> and get widespread adoption in time to catch up with Passport.
> That leaves some form of legal trick that places an encumbrance
> on data requested via an open standard, or at least requires
> the requestor to identify something about what they are going
> to do with the data (e.g., you must tell me if you are going to
> store the requested data with data from many other web
> sites). That would give client software implementers the chance
> to warn users about the consequences of giving the information
> to a particular web site.
> 
> Ron Burk
> HighTechInfo.com, www.hightechinfo.com
> 


Good response.  There has to be some legal thing that can be done. 
Someone just mentioned copyrighting people's personal information.  I
like that a lot, Tony - what do you think about that?

        -Barry