How about, instead of hijacking everyone's browser in a default 'OptIn' program that nobody knows about, they provide the choices and only redirect the browser for those that choose to use their 'service'? How about they only write a cookie for those users who want their service and choose to 'OptIn'? Seems much more ethical and less invasive for those paying customers who don't want their 'feature' or their cookie.
As a side note, this 'feature' is Microsoft-centric. I experimented setting different default search engines. Google goes to Google. Yahoo goes to Yahoo. AOL goes to AOL. Windows Live Search goes to Charter Communications' new 'service'...'powered by Yahoo!'.
Perhaps Microsoft's lawyers, or some state district attorney somewhere could check into this. I don't have the time or resources, so I will either accept the cookie or just go back to using Google.