Microsoft Is Expanding Their Anti-Piracy Program

[keith10456]

Microsoft Is Expanding Their Anti-Piracy Program


As reported on WashingtonPost.com (MS Expands Anti-Piracy Program, Reissues Patch), today Microsoft will began expanding their anti-piracy program in the US.

The software will download to Windows computers via the "Automatic Updates" feature. If users agree to the Terms, the software will then scan your computer to see if you're using an unlicensed version of Windows. If you are, upon rebooting your computer you will began receiving pop-up alerts stating, "This copy of Windows is not genuine; you may be a victim of software counterfeiting." Users will receive this message until they validate their machines as genuine through WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage).

Furthermore, if users do not validated their machines, they will not be able to download IE 7, Windows Defender or many other downloads and updates." However, users will be able to receive "High Priority Security & reliability updates regardless of their validation status."

In the story, Microsoft is quoted as saying, "WGA Notifications is for Windows XP users. Our client software does not collect any information that can be used to identify or contact a user. We use the same process used by many popular search engines and Web sites to determine where their users are from -- a form of IP lookup. This IP lookup process does not include any information that is used to identify you or contact you, and only gives a rough geographic representation of where users are located." Yeah right...

Microsoft is scheduled to expand the program to other Windows software.

[Uchiha Nick]

i wonder how serious we should take this. from the past this kind of statements where quite.. bullshit. but seeing the approach of winvista, who knows what theyre up to now?

[EXreaction]

How about getting a legal copy?

If you can't afford Windows use something that is free. How would you like it if you owned a store, and you constantly had people stealing stuff from you?

[nuclear_eclipse]

How about getting a legal copy?

If you can't afford Windows use something that is free. How would you like it if you owned a store, and you constantly had people stealing stuff from you?

While I completely agree with that statement, I think a big issue with this is the issue of privacy. Wired just had an article dealing with who all 'owns' your computer, talking about all the pieces of software on your computer that works outside your control. I think this would classify as Microsoft trying to 'own' even more of your system than they already do.

Also, quite frankly, I don't think it's their business to be denying downloads of 'non-critical' updates, as it could potentially affect everyone around them when the latest exploit of that 'non-critical' bug spreads like wildfire among all the unprotected computers, and could potentially affect even the protected systems.

Anyone remember the internet slowdowns as caused by some of the major worms and viruses over the past few years? Anyone able to imagine the amount of crappy tech support calls because someone can't get the latest updates and it affects their systems?

Granted, I still say it's the user's fault for not buying Windows, but should it really affect the rest of the world because Microsoft doesn't feel like giving them the most secure version possible? It's not like it's really going to make someone run out and buy a legal copy just because they can't download the smelly heap of garbage otherwise known as IE7.....

Consider me miffed, and all 8 copies of Windows running on my computers are 100% legit...

[SamG]

Until there is evidence that WGA actually violates my privacy, I don't see the problem.

We don't own software we use, we license it's use and agree to the terms of use in the process. If I object to the terms, I don't use the software. It all seems up front to me.

[nuclear_eclipse]

Well, considering WGA was added LONG after I accepted the license agreement, and I don't really have a choice to NOT install WGA (since it's mandatory to get any updates period), I think that's a huge oversight on Microsoft's part.

And the point is not a violation of privacy, but a possible violation of security.

[SamG]

Well, you were talking about the privacy and ownership side of things as being a "big issue," so that's what I was responding to.

If it's a security concern only, I just don't see it. If high priority updates are still available without validation, where is the security risk?

More importantly, if the only thing between me and full access to Microsoft offerings (OneCare, Defender, Microsoft Update, etc.) is WGA, then I still do not see how this puts me as a licensed Windows user at a disadvantage. WGA certainly is less intrusive than Office software activation, IMHO, and I get several clear benefits from WGA.

Just my opinion.

[Uchiha Nick]

How about getting a legal copy?

If you can't afford Windows use something that is free. How would you like it if you owned a store, and you constantly had people stealing stuff from you?

im an ITer ( or hwo you say it in english ) and i do know what im talking about. the problem with free-oss, is the software. im also a gamer, on a more serious level. so you see, im being forced to use windows.

besides, i really hate microsoft. i really do. i already had a legal one, but my pc crashed and i reinstalled it. it gave 'duplication'- so in fact, 150 euros down the drain. then, you can ask yourself this question- is the money worth it? updates, when a critical update is needed, you still are forced to wait til they release a package of updates. ( i dont know how its now, but i dont dl them anymore, enough MS crap on my pc )

about the stealing things from you- dont even start with that. since even the windows name isnt made by MS. they 'stole' it, more or less. MS stole a lot more things- so dont even try going that direction.

so the whole point is- i use windows because i am forced to use it.

[SamG]

Accepting WGA isn't about liking Microsoft.

And as far as this "I can steal from Microsoft because they've stolen from just about everybody else" stuff…well, you can justify just about anything you want with that open-ended kind of thinking. At the end of the day, it gets us nowhere.

[Uchiha Nick]

whoever said i think like that? i dont justify anything. i gave my points as to why i dont care anymore about legal windows or not.