Windows Media Player user license extensions

[Markus Kuhn]

According to

  Will Knight: Microsoft's anti-piracy plans spark controversy,
  NewScientist.com news service, 2002-07-01.
  http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992483

a recent security bug fix update in Microsoft's Windows Media Player
changed the End User License Agreement displayed during installation of
the patch. It now apparently requires users to agree to any future
security updates related to "digital rights management", i.e. preventing
copyright infringement:

    In order to protect the integrity of content and software
    protected by digital rights management "Secure Content", Microsoft may
    provide security related updates to the OS Components that will be
    automatically downloaded onto your computer.

Do lawyers and consumer protection experts here have a view on the legal
validity of changes to a software licence agreement that are sneaked in
as part of a security bugfix?

The TiVo ad-skip button downgrade scandal comes to mind again ...

Consumer protection legislation was written to protect anyone who is not
a professional business person or lawyer from nasty fine-print in
contracts. Do these laws have to be updated to also consider automatic
online upgrades of software products, including those that might alter
the purchased functionality long after the purchase?

How does the Computer Misuse Act come into play? Should software vendors
be allowed to get indemnity from what could be a violation of the
Computer Misuse Act through carefully worded End User Licence
Agreements?

Markus

-- 
Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK
Email: mkuhn at acm.org,  WWW: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/>