 |
Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation |
|
 |
 |
Posted by Paul Szynol on Thursday, January 16 @ 02:45:13 EST
|
|
|
 |
 |
I recently converted my single boot Linux laptop to a dual boot Linux/Windows XP laptop, so that I can use Microsoft Office (writing law school papers is still easier in Word than it is in Open Office). I've just installed RealPlayer, which has reminded me how obnoxious installation of some proprietary software can be.
As part of the installation process, RealPlayer takes you through a series of dialogue windows (these are essentially pop-up windows, like the ones that appear when you want to set preferences in your browser, for instance). The third or fourth window allows you to select "Real.com News and Entertainment Flashes".
Specifically, the dialogue displays a scrolldown window which contains a list of options, each of which has a checkbox next to it. If you want to receive spam about a given topic, you check the box; otherwise, you leave it empty.
The list has twelve options, but only four options are visible at a time. The first four options all have unchecked boxes. The following four options are also unchecked. But the last four options are all checked. In order to know that, though, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom.
The default unchecked boxes that are visible at the outset clearly lead the user to believe that ALL of the boxes are unchecked, and the avg customer probably won't think to scroll all the way down and uncheck these boxes. Which means that by clicking "next" when confonted with the first four unchecked boxes, the user unwittingly elects to receive sports, entertainment, music and new service announcements.
This is essentially a cheap and dirty marketing tactic which creates an illusion of informed acceptance by the user where no such acceptance really exists. I wonder if, in contract land, RealPlayer's tactics would be found unconscionable.
|
|
 |
| |
 |
Related Links |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Options |
 |
| The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content. |
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 03:32:05 EST | actually the last 5 are checked, so even if you scroll all the way down, you might miss the fifth one... |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 1) by mcgroarty on Thursday, January 16 @ 07:22:48 EST (User Info | Send a Message) http://www.mcgroarty.net | This is about as fun as many products' use of double negatives and worse in the opt-out clauses:
"Do not de-select the below if you wish your address to be withheld from select business partners."
Also right in line with Corel Graphics Suite's registration system. To register the software, you're required to give your information to a third party marketing firm and look at ads before they'll pass it back to Corel. If you refuse, you have to write everything out on paper (no option to print any form) and mail it back by paper mail.
Probably the worst software install trick, however, is the WinAmp3 installer. When you install WinAmp3, it will add an AOL.COM domain to your list of trusted sites in Internet Explorer and lower the security settings for the trusted domain list. The result is that visiting one of AOL.COM's domains will allow it to download and execute code on your system without so much as a prompt.
You are never prompted about having AOL reduce your security settings, it isn't mentioned during the install procedure, and it opens a can of worms. Anybody compromising that server at AOL could, in turn, compromise millions of systems by getting them to visit the page. (Not hard to do with Javascript on another more popular page.) |
[ Reply to This ]
- Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 14:25:29 EST
- Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 14:34:52 EST
- hm by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 14:55:45 EST
- Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 15:06:10 EST
- Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 15:53:13 EST
- Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 16:21:15 EST
- ummm, winamp3? by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 18:28:34 EST
- Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation by Anonymous on Friday, January 17 @ 03:35:01 EST
- Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation by Anonymous on Saturday, January 18 @ 00:53:58 EST
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 08:10:48 EST | Grow up.
If you are handed a three-page contract, it is not unreasonable to expect you to turn over the pages and peruse all three of them before signing. Even if the first two pages are soothing and unoffending, you are expected to remain vigilant and read the third page.
Since scrolling down the screen is no more arduous than flipping a page, I seriously doubt that, "in contract land", RealPlayer's tactics would be found unconscionable - at least on this point.
I have much more serious concerns with the "form of adhesion" problem that so many software packages have - either accept all these terms or you cannot use the software at all. Often, these terms include the right to install new pieces of software on your machine at the software-manufacturer's pleasure and convenience, and the right to drop new terms on you whenever they want. By comparison, RealPlayer's provision of boxes for you to uncheck is downright decent.
Pick your fights. This one isn't worth getting worked up over. |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 1) by Barry on Thursday, January 16 @ 11:43:36 EST (User Info | Send a Message) | The practive may or may not be "unconscionable," but it does likely fail to create an enforceable contract, at least in the 2nd Circuit. See below.
In Specht v. Netscape Communications Corp.,[*] the court stated that, to be enforceable, click-wrap and shrink-wrap agreements require users to perform an affirmative action unambiguously expressing assent. In this case, there was one small box of text referring to the license language, which was “couched in the mild request ‘Please review and agree . . .’” The court found that this was a “mere invitation” and not a condition. Failure to require users to indicate assent was “fatal” to Netscape’s argument that a contract had been formed. To be enforceable, language must indicate that a user “must” agree to the license terms. Importantly, for purposes of this post, on appeal, the @nd Circuit found it important that the notice of the existence of the contract was not visible until a user scrolled to the next screen and not visible when the user made the decision to “accept.” The Second Circuit said that a reasonably prudent person would not have known or learned of the license terms prior to using the software and could not be held to have had “constructive notice” of the terms. The Second Circuit held that “in circumstances such as these, where consumers are urged to download free software at the immediate click of a button, a reference to the existence of license terms on a submerged screen is not sufficient to place consumers on inquiry or constructive notice of those terms.” If the hidden terms at issue here ("consenting" to unwanted spam) would be material to the user's decision to click/accept, Specht may be instructive.
[*] Specht, 150 F.Supp.2d 585 (S.D. NY 2001), aff’d Specht, et al. v. Netscape Communications Corp., et al., Nos. 01-7860(L), 01-7870 (CON), 01-7872(CON) (2nd Cir. October 1, 2002).
|
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 14:15:12 EST | I know you're gonna get tired of hearing it soon, but check out
CrossOver Office. All your MS apps, running under windows... nice and simple. $55 bucks (includes upgrades too)
|
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 14:41:44 EST | I've known about this for ages, and have never fallen for it, but it sure is a dirty trick, and it let me to stop using RealPlayer completely. I consider them the gold standard in underhand "take over your mindspace" techniques. Good riddance! |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 15:09:57 EST | It's been said before, but I'll say it again hear, as some seem to be unable to think.
Read what you are doing when you install software on your PC. Read the license agreement. Read everything. Real is not stopping you from clearing those checkboxes. They give you the ability to scroll down to them and clear them. As another poster said, you would read every page of a contract you were about to sign. A software install is like a contract. |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 15:15:19 EST | This has got to be some kind of test of the intelligence of law students and/or lawyers. You have no problem accepting the EULA for XP and MS Office, which basically gives them complete access to all the data on your laptop. But are outraged that you have to scroll down and uncheck some boxes in Realplayer so you do not receive some easily filtered spam.
So how did I do? I'm not really a lawyer by the way, I just play one on the internet. |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 15:26:48 EST | Why give a real email address?
I usually make one up.
If I'm really unhappy with the signup then I will
check all the mail me boxes so that the org has
to clean up from all the bounces.
And if there is now way around giving an email
address, than I only give one of my spam
account email adresses. If you use hotmail for
this you might want to clean out the account
so a bounce doesn't kill the reply you need...
And they will have to deal with the bounces
from hotmail |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 15:28:20 EST | The installer for RealPlayer is certainly one of the most invasive I know. If you don't choose custom installation and uncheck a lot of your boxes, RealPlayer registers itself with about every known file type, overriding all the more appropriate players/viewers/etc. that you installed previously.
I'm also one of the people that did scroll down on these options and was offended by their trick of only selecting boxes you don't see.
Another insult to me was the fact that RealPlayer installed its "Start Center" to auto-start with Windows. If you removed the responsible registry key, it was added again the next time you used RealPlayer. I got so annoyed by this behavior that I patched the RealPlayer executable and modified the registry key name so that it was harmless. This change was later undone when I installed Netscape, which, without asking, installed a new copy of RealPlayer.
Later I found that you can turn off the Start Center from within RealPlayer's options menu. And in fact, I applaud Real for giving you a choice in selecting or unselecting the amount of spam you receive.
They don't have to give you a choice. They could just add a clause to their license agreement that you must agree to receive spam in order to use the software. And they have a market penetration that allows them to essentially do anything.
Sure, I'd like to have more privacy in the default installation, but the ability to elect privacy is good enough for me. I've seen much worse license agreements where I don't have that choice, but where it's "live without privacy or die".
|
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 16:45:15 EST | Of course, the thing is... When Real Player asks you for your email address, you put in your real email address. I hate to sound mean, but it's like your cell phone number, you wouldn't want to give that out to every marketer that asks would you?
The problem is that people don't read the fine print when they want something. This is how people get screwed with car payments, bad contracts, and a plethora of other problems. If you don't agree to the terms of a contract, you, of course don't enter into it. Or, you propose modified terms.
It sounds kind of paranoid to read the fine print of everything you get, but think of it this way. There is a reason why there is fine print in everything. If you are uninformed, you WILL be taken advantage of. Worst of all, you WERE told that you would be taken advantage of in the fine print.
Remember, as in cards, if within five minutes you can't tell who the sucker is in the room, it's probably you! |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 16:47:36 EST | Ok, so you are complaining that realplayer has a large list of options of spam that they give you the ability to not receive. Not only do they NOT have all items checked, but they only have 5. You are complaining that you have to scroll down a page to uncheck them?
Sounds like you are just trying to find a beef w/ real.
|
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 16:58:15 EST | don't be stupid, just because the first 4 are not checked doesn't mean none of them are. how much effort does it take to scroll down before clicking next? i hate when people make dumb assuptions and then blame someone else when they're wrong. there have been plenty of rotten things marketing types have come up with to maximize their take, but this isn't one of them. |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Make their marketing less effective (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, January 16 @ 19:21:48 EST | Whenever I register a software package, such as RealPlayer, I submit an email address that I use for Spam collection.
If they dare email that address, the message is indexed, and its signature is distributed around the net so others can filter it.
Spam won't stop until it is nolonger cost effective. |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Friday, January 17 @ 02:38:29 EST | The RealOne player doesn't appear to suffer from this problem; you can actually cancel out before it even gets around to asking you for personal information such as email address. It does still do the usual annoying stuff like stealing all your associations and sticking "Free Offers from Real.com" on your desktop if you don't keep a watchful eye on it though. |
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
So, that's why adults ask kids to do installs! (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Monday, January 20 @ 03:27:39 EST | And here I was thinking that most adults are stupid, when they're just making sure they get the best of all worlds - they get the software, and any "contract" should be unenforceable because the person who installed it is a minor.
Oh well, use fake data. Use addresses of companies which do stuff like this (not the same company which produces the software of course - too easy to filter out).
|
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
Re: Cheap Trick: SIMPLE BRILLIANT SOLUTION to RealPlayer Windows Installation (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 22 @ 20:48:02 EST | Gentlemen:
May I suggest the most useful program I've found in years, and use more than any other? Go to www.sneakemail.com & register the email address you want
"protected". Then, every time someone wants your address, click on sneakemail and it will generate a new, random address "@sneakemail.com" (which will contain the "label" you assigned to that one address, revealing for whom it was originated in brackets in the "From" field, that can be seen only by you!). All mail to that sneskemail address is forwarded to your "protected" address. If you start getting spammed, you know who sold your info & to whom. Complain to both - & "postmaster@" THEIR domains. If that doesn't do it - go back to sneakemail and have that address deleted! DISPOSABLE ADDRESSES - & THEY'RE FREE!
Also check out www.deathtospam.com (and their offspring "WebPoison" which eats harvester robots - also FREE.)
No sweat, Gents... and NO SPAM!
|
[ Reply to This ]
|
|
|