[brownbat]

Maybe. The carte is as blanche as there are ways to interpret "protection of Microsoft's rights or property."

Microsoft has, for example, the right to petition government without fear of reprisal. It could protect this right if Microsoft were to review any email accounts of lawmakers or regulators to ensure that they never express any animus against Microsoft based on past filings or appeals.

Microsoft may wish to protect its property by scanning every hotmail account for discussions of havens for illicit software, like torrents or newsgroups, trying to determine exactly what each user has downloaded and when.

Extreme examples are just for illustration. I don't think Microsoft will jump on those as next steps. But if the question is, "Could these user agreements justify things that would make us a little uncomfortable?" I think the answer is probably yes. Are we there just yet? Maybe, maybe not.