Windows Media Player user license extensions

[Peter Fairbrother]

Is Windows Media Player included with Windows? If so the Security Upgrade is
a bug-fix for the original product, which has been admitted to be defective
by the manufacturer, and the attempt to add extra conditions to the existing
licencing terms is an attempt to add conditions to an existing contract (the
contract granting the licence to use Windows in exchange for money paid).

AIUI the original licence itself is is a consideration in that contract, and
the terms of the licence are part of the contract. Isn't the licence a
chattel, and it's sale thus falls under the Sale of Goods Act(s)?

Anyone want to take their copy of Windows back and ask for a refund? It's
admittedly defective and can't be repaired under the contract under which it
was supplied. You might even get damages due to the monopoly and
interoperability issues, not to mention staff training and the like.

(I have neither the time to do it myself nor a copy of Windows :)


If wmp isn't included in Windows but has to be downloaded seperately, I'm
less sure about the situation. There can't have been a contract granting a
licence as there is no consideration from the user (wmp by itself is free,
or at least the Mac version is. The Windows version might be considered as
part of Windows even if it's not included in Windows as supplied). In this
case I suppose the licence might be regatded as a gift.


Incidently, St. Albans City & District Council v International computers
Limited http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1995/cbr/cases/case14/ONE.HTM
established that the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 applied to the supply of
software. I don't know if the situation has changed since then (1994).


-- Peter Fairbrother