Well, this is disappointing: Microsoft has fessed up that it peeked into a blogger’s Hotmail email account. The blogger had obtained some pre-release code for Windows 8. The issue for the courts to decide is whether this snooping was in line with Microsoft’s license, which states that they can review materials on its communications services, but did that targeted snooping violate the blogger’s right to privacy.

Microsoft has long freaked out about its code getting out there, which is odd because they basically give you the code when you buy the software. Well, technically you are “licensed” to use the software, and that use does preclude you from jamming the code through a debugger — but you can still do that and Microsoft would never be the wiser. In fact, peeking inside Microsoft code is one way to find undocumented features and options. I used to do that all the time.

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