[mdlug-discuss] [Fwd: WD following up]

[Aaron Kulkis]

Wolfger wrote:
> Mr. Scott,
>      Thank you for your response to the concerns a great many of us
> have. I think it is important to make it clear that:
> 
> 1. This boycott is not about the quality of your hardware.
> 2. It does not matter that the software is written by a third party if
> you are the company bundling and distributing it.
> 3. WD's "respect for copyright" would be reflected much better if you
> actually respected copyright, and didn't just oppose all sharing of
> files based on file type. Please familiarize your company (and your
> partner company) with the Public Domain and Creative Commons licenses
> which many *copyrighted* works are distributed under, which not only
> allow but encourage file sharing activity.
> 4. So long as your company bundles this software with some of your
> products, I (and many others) will not buy any of your products.
> 

I would add...

Since when does WD take on the obligation of making sure
that their customers are behaving legally or not.  Are Ford
and General Motors responsible for for how fast someone drives?
Or is it up to the driver of a car to obey the traffic laws.

Crippling hardware that I purchase just because someone else
MIGHT break the law is no better a solution than putting
governors on car engines so that nobody speeds...and in the
process, killing the acceleration needed to go from a dead
stop into high speed traffic on any car equipped with an
automatic transmission.

No car customer would like an automaker playing nanny to
how they drive.  Why does WD consider it proper to play
nanny to their customers?


>> Thank you for contacting WD and sharing your concerns. We understand
>> your position, and customer feedback like yours is very valuable to WD.
>>
>> We think it is important to make clear that:
>>
>>    1. WD hard drives and WD external drives store user content with no
>>       restriction on file types, as they always have.
>>    2. Two of our external hard drives, My Book World Edition and My Book
>>       Office Edition, offer MioNet software as an added value to customers.
>>    3. The MioNet software offers users remote access to all of their
>>       data and content from anywhere with Internet access.
>>    4. Based on WD's respect for copyright owners, the MioNet software
>>       sold separately and bundled with WD's My Book World Edition and My
>>       Book Office Edition storage appliances currently does not support
>>       sharing over the Internet of digital file types normally
>>       associated with copyright-protected music and video content.
>>
>> You can learn more about Mionet software, which was acquired by WD
>> earlier in 2007, by visiting:
>> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/software/index.asp?familyID=200
>> <BLOCKED::BLOCKED::http://www.wdc.com/en/products/software/index.asp?familyID=200>
>>
>> We want to reiterate our appreciation of your feedback; it will be
>> seriously considered for future product development. We're studying how
>> legitimate rights of copyright owners may be protected while still
>> allowing our MioNet customers to share their own video and audio files.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Catherine Scott
>>
>> Western Digital
>>
>> Vice President of Corporate Communications
>>
>> C.Scott at wdc.com <BLOCKED::BLOCKED::mailto:C.Scott at wdc.com>
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
>