At 08:17 PM 11/20/96 -0800, Lucky Green wrote:

he [hp's policy person] replied:

"There are many possible interpretations of the words 'voluntary' and 'mandatory'."

I am willing to testify to this under oath.

I don't know what dictionary HP is using. Orwell himself must have written it.

Well, if the customer does not complain about its inclusion, and chooses to use it for its simplicity over more secure, "after market" systems, then thats voluntary. Thats the same voluntary that means that if the people don't get out to the polls then they volunteered to keep thier opinions about how government should be run to themselves. It will probably be voluntary, no one tells you that you have to use interNic when using the internet, but you probably do because it is easier than trying to route around it to its new competitor (the one issuing URL's ending in .auto and .bus among others). No one is telling you to use interNic, no one is telling you to pay to register with interNic, but it is definately less of a headache.