"Imagine your Automobile and Mechanic under the software EULA.
I will use Ford cars for my example (they don't do this,/yet/)."
LOL
I give up on the EULA thing, but on another topic the whole Ford (and other
manufacturers) black box thing must drive you nuts:
http://www.autoblog.com/2006/08/22/nhtsa-requires-disclosing-black-box-details/2
It was just recently ruled that manufacturers (in 2011) will have to start
telling people about these (they've been around for years) AND they have
already been used to deny warranty claims based of "excessive breaking,"
"excessive top speed," and "excessive acceleration." I doubt it will be too
many years before the information can be freely accessed by your insurance
company to determine your rates (they already do access it if you're in an
accident).
Imagine a company (say Ford ) sells you a $35,000 sports car with all kinds
of commercials showing how fast it is and how well it handles. Then when the
transmission goes out, they hook up a computer and say, "sorry your
vehicle's been over a hundred several times and you regularly use excessive
accleration and braking," i.e. you drive your sports car like a sports car,
not a minivan, so your warranty is void - but we'll replace the transmission
for $2000.00.
Vista doesn't worry me much.
-Mike
P.S. What if Ford told you that unless you followed a regular maintenence
schedule of what *they* say must happen or they wouldn't provide the
expected repairs if something prematurely broke? AND there was a well known,
but unspoken rule that unless you used *their* overpriced mechanics for it
that you would have a hell of a hard time bringing it to them to get
something fixed under warranty?? . . . Oh wait, they already do.