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January122006

Unlocking The Complete New Yorker

Filed under: Looked Into   Tagged: ,

Having expressed his dismay at some of the more inconvenient features of The Complete New Yorker, Mr. Jalopy at Hooptyrides proves his determination and gives readers the (risky) key to getting around what he says are invasions of user privacy. Caution: Technical frustration and David Remnick at the door with a tire iron may ensue. As Boing Boing reports:


Mr Jalopy has posted a compelling ruminations on the user-license that come with the DVD-based Complete New Yorker set, as well instructions for de-activating the crippling use-restrictions built into it.

As Mark blogged in December, Boing Boing pal Mr Jalopy of the Hooptyrides blog posted a great review of The Complete New Yorker, a collection he'd hotly anticipated as a fan of the magazine. The problem is that the eight-disc set comes with copy-restriction technology that prevents him from loading it onto his hard drive for easy use, which means that if he tries to read the archive out of chronological order (say, through the subject index), he has to constantly swap discs, which is a gigantic pain.

What's worse is the license agreement, which requires you to waive your privacy rights to allow "the collection of your viewing information during your use of the Software and/or Content. Viewing information may include, without limitation, the time spent viewing specific pages, the order in which pages are viewed, the time of day pages are accessed, IP address and user ID. This viewing information may be linked to personally identifiable information, such as name or address and shared with third parties." This is a pretty abusive term-of-service for an anthology of magazines: since when does reading a magazine require a waiver of privacy? Continued.

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