BILL GATES: ALL YOUR COMPUTER ARE BELONG TO US

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

Alright, they are not exhibits per se, but they are eye-openers. In the first article, there is mention made that Microsoft founder Billy Gates made a cryptic remark about internet rights to China's President. The comment was something along the lines of:

"It is my belief that industry and government around the world should work even more closely to protect the privacy and security of Internet users, and promote the exchange of ideas, while respecting legitimate government considerations."

What the hell does "legitimate" government considerations mean? A Microsoft spokesman when asked about what Billy Gates is really talking about began to drool uncontrollably and then his head exploded. Why? Only because he must have been privy to Exhibit B.

In Exhibit B you will find mention of one Computer Spyware Protection Act, or House Bill 2083 (that would be Oklahoma House Bill 2083). Basically the bill would dish out fines of up to millions of dollars for illegally accessing someone's computer via viruses or surreptitious methods (i.e. without their permission). The bill was partially written by State Senator Clark Jolley (R). As quoted by Jolley:

"The bill has a clear prohibition on anything going in without your permission. You have to grant permission, you can look at your license agreement. It will say whether they have the ability to take that information or not."

Right about now bells should be going off inside your nugget. Under this act, when you click "accept" on the user agreement, this effectively gives permission to any of the companies of which you have their upgradeable software installed on your computer the right and freedom to come into your computer to "detection or prevention of unauthorized use of or fraudulent or other illegal activities in connection with a network, service, or computer software, including scanning for and removing computer software prescribed under this act."

Layman's terms: Microsoft or any other company of which you have their software on your computer can erase spyware and viruses "for you". Additionally, if you have a pirated copy of software on your system, the associated company can erase it (let's be real, they can erase anything else they want to also) without being held liable for breaking into your system. Scary part: because of the "fraudulent or other illegal activities" clause, that means that they can let the local DA know you wrote a bad check last week, let the AG know you play poker online, etc.

Bottom line: this is scary. What may be even scarier is that the bill was co-authored by Microsoft (refer to shady comment to Chinese President; Exhibit A). Hopefully the Oklahoma House will see this as BS and not pass the Billy Gates Gruff.

Minus