You have friends who are either employees or business owners. Most likely they don't know about Microsoft Passport's horrendous contract language. If you interpret that language the same way I do, you'll probably fear that they might inadvertently give away trade secrets or confidential information. If so...
Do you have friends in law firms? It's illegal and highly career limiting to divulge confidential client or case information. Warn them! Let them know about the Passport license, and technologies likely to use Passport, such as Hailstorm, .Net, Hotmail, and Windows XP.
Do you have friends in medicine? Huge lawsuits can result from divulging patient information. Warn them!
Do you have friends in finance? Warn them!
Friends in Real Estate? Warn them!
Do you have friends who regularly electronically transmit proprietary or trade secret information? Read the rights specifically given Microsoft by the the Microsoft Passport terms of use and notices, regardless of copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws. Warn them!
Read to your friend the exact language of the "LICENSE TO MICROSOFT" section of the Microsoft Passport terms of use and notices. Then explain your fears and suspicions, and why they're credible. Be sure to mention that you're not a lawyer, so it's possible there's not a problem, but you're taking no chances.
Let your friend know the technologies that are tied to Passport. My research tells me that Hotmail, .Net, Hailstorm, and Windows XP are all tied to Passport, and therefore may carry the same risks as Passport, although only the lawyers can decide for sure.
Ask your friend how comfortable he feels having Passport as a single point of failure for his entire business, especially since that single point of failure isn't even in his company's sphere of influence.
If your friend is an employee, you might gently suggest he send a paper memo outlining the problem, to his boss with copies to others, and a copy for himself. In this way he absolves himself of the responsibility for failing to act, should upper management decide to fail to act. Of course, you want to tell your employee friend to balance that risk against the risk, in some business environments, of being labeled a "troublemaker".
Finally, if it looks like you've gotten through to your friend, you might want to ask him to tell his friends. Recursion is a good thing.
Your job is to convince your friend that there are alternatives to Passport and Passport contaminated techologies. Those alternatives might not be easy. Yours is a tough job. But I think the blatant "all you have is ours" language in the "Microsoft Passport terms of use and notices" just made that job a lot easier.
As I look back upon the history of Microsoft, there's one constant: Microsoft isn't happy if anyone else is making money. They will not draw borders, they will not stop conquest. Yesterday it was OS, development tools and office suites. Today it's expanded to Internet content, infrastructure, news, and finance. I truly believe that if they remain successful, and if they keep the current management, they will not quit until they own every car dealership, every bookstore, every television station, and for practical purposes, the US government. That's my opinion. In 10 years we'll know how right or wrong I was.
As I look back on 15 years of Microsoft, it's clear to me that their strategy is to exploit a conquered marketplace to invade the next. If Microsoft possesses a single chokepoint over your business's data flow, they rule your business. And they can pull you into even more restrictive technologies. They can have their way with you.
The best policy with regard to Microsoft is to avoid them to the extent possible. It's sometimes painful, but in the long run it's the best chance for survival. And don't expect the government to intervene in your behalf, at least in the next four years.
For credibility's sake, you probably don't want to mention this closing thought to your friend. This closing thought sounds too far fetched to be true. But you might want to give your friend a short Microsoft history lesson.
Remember: Friends don't let friends use Passport!
Email Steve Litt (but not from hotmail)