A bad rap for the SJSC CTO

Russell Shaw, who I always enjoy (and often agree with), has a post in which he beats up on the San Jose State University regarding their threats to ban Skype on campus networks.

Russell says Don Baker, the university technologist behind the ban, is paranoid and “a clueless, ‘what if’ Luddite.”

Russell is not alone. It has become fashionable in the blogosphere to beat up on Mr. Baker.

So here’s the thing though, friendly blogosphere. The Skype license agreement does in fact say that Skype can do whatever they want on my computer and network. And sure, you can say I’m being paranoid and that they won’t “really” do anything bad. But if so, then why not take that language out of the EULA? I mean come on. We’re not talking about a couple of guys that won’t set foot in the US for fear of getting arrested anymore; we’re talking about Ebay now.

If they’re not going to do anything bad, why do they have to reserve the right to do so?

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