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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday August 26 2017, @06:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the unpleasant-aftertaste dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Microsoft sparked fury when it aggressively pushed its Windows 10 operating system onto people's PCs – from unexpected downloads to surprise installations.

Now a consumer rights group has forced Redmond to promise it will never do it again, in Germany at least.

In 2015, Microsoft offered existing Windows 7 and 8 users a free upgrade to its new cloud-friendly OS, and rapidly become increasingly ambitious about getting it onto machines. After bundling the upgrade alongside its monthly security patches and resorting to tricky tactics, loads of users found they were downloading gigabytes of unwanted Redmond code.

This riled a lot of folks, but Germany – one of the few countries that takes consumer rights seriously – actually took action. The Consumer Center in Baden-Württemberg filed a cease-and-desist complaint against Redmond regarding the practice, and the software giant has unexpectedly caved and promised never to do it again.

"We would have wished for an earlier introduction, but the levy is a success for more consumer rights in the digital world," said Cornelia Tausch, CEO of the Center.

Source: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/23/microsoft_windows_10_updates_germany/


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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:21AM (2 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @08:21AM (#559349) Journal
    Thanks for the link!

    Reading languages I don't know is fun.

    "Eine Unterlassungserklärung (auch Unterwerfungserklärung) ist eine Erklärung, in der sich der Erklärende verpflichtet, eine beanstandete Handlung in Zukunft nicht vorzunehmen."

    Let's see, eine is a/an, ist is is, nicht is not, those are easy. And Erklärung is just obvious from common Germanic, that has to mean explanation. Verpflichtet is gifflicted, afflicted by means of gift, obliged. Beanstandete is together+standing, communal? Collective? Social? Something like that. Handlung is handling, 'action' is probably a good translation to modern English. This is legalese so I am thinking 'beanstandete handlung' probably means 'class action' actually. Vorzunehmen, predictably, the last word of the sentence broke me. Couldn't figure out a translation that made any sense, looked it up. "To undertake."

    So here's my ignorant American translation of that sentence:

    "An *Unterlassungserklärung* (also *Unterwerfungserklärung*) is an explanation, in which the explaining obliges, without requiring a class-action to be undertaken."

    Very good, as far as I can see that link does seem to back you up.

    Alright, now I'll wait for someone that actually knows German to tell me if I was funny or not.

    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:21AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:21AM (#559357)

    - "Erklärung" in the sense used here is actually a statement, not an explanation.
    - You missed "sich" in the middle construct. "Sich verpflichten" means "to obligate oneself".
    - "beanstandet" does come from the roots you guessed, but its meaning is completely different: it's "standing together" in the sense of "similar", or "under discussion". So "beanstandete handlung" means "a similar action". The last part of the sentence therefore means "to not undertake a similar action in the future".

    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:36AM

      by Arik (4543) on Saturday August 26 2017, @09:36AM (#559363) Journal
      Danke!
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?