There is a rampant practice where companies and organizations flippantly and often fraudulently stamp copyright notices on everything they touch—including public domain materials such as the U.S. Constitution, works of William Shakespeare, prints of the Mona Lisa, copies of the 9/11 Commission Report, and compositions of J.S. Bach. [0]
It seems Microsoft has now automated this practice.
Edit: It's easy to jump the gun and start accusing Microsoft of something nefarious here. To be clear, I'm personally giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and assuming that this was an honest mistake, and that the folks at Microsoft who had something to do with setting this up were well-meaning.
My point is that we're living in a culture that, as a standard practice, sprinkles "(c) [year] [company]" on things like salt, that such claims are frequently invalid or misleading, and that this broader issue may be partly to blame for incidents like the one we are discussing today.
It seems Microsoft has now automated this practice.
[0] http://www.copyfraud.com
Edit: It's easy to jump the gun and start accusing Microsoft of something nefarious here. To be clear, I'm personally giving Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and assuming that this was an honest mistake, and that the folks at Microsoft who had something to do with setting this up were well-meaning.
My point is that we're living in a culture that, as a standard practice, sprinkles "(c) [year] [company]" on things like salt, that such claims are frequently invalid or misleading, and that this broader issue may be partly to blame for incidents like the one we are discussing today.