Windows 7 Anti-Piracy Plans 403
Slatterz writes "Microsoft has announced that the forthcoming Windows 7 operating system will contain a number of piracy 'tweaks' it says are designed to protect the interests of customers. Under the new regime users will be expected to validate their software in a much more precise way than before. Other Microsoft operating systems and anti-piracy measures, including Windows Genuine Advantage, allowed users to delay 'activation,' but Windows 7 will make it harder to ignore repeated messages. According to Joe Williams, general manager for Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft, counterfeit software 'delivers a poor experience and impacts customer satisfaction with our products, particularly if users do not know that their software is non-genuine.' Williams gave the example of one piracy exploit that caused more than a million reported system crashes on machines running non-genuine Windows Vista before Microsoft was able to resolve it."
The interests of customers? (Score:5, Informative)
it says are designed to protect the interests of customers
Hahahaha!
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, I've seen it quite a bit. Usually what happens is a non-techy person will ask the neighbor kid to fix their computer. The neighbor kid puts on a pirated version because of laziness, anti-MS feelings, lack of a product key, etc. The non-techy person doesn't know the difference and never does manual updates, so they don't find out until WGA tells them.
Re:What does that say about the product? (Score:3, Informative)
"Essentially, Microsoft has put a killswitch/disabling tool in Windows 7 that can shut down/cripple versions of 7 that are pirated. Since this is marketing, we're going to couch the discussion in a way that sounds like we are doing this for the customer, so they know that the overpriced software called Windows 7 wasn't a copied version from a shady supplier."
The only reason this story is on
Re:most people won't care (Score:3, Informative)
my msdn license keys for Vista say up to 10 activations and you can give it out to other people for "marketing purposes"
Does it actually say that? Last time I checked out getting an MSDN subscription for free OS and goodies I saw the part about "non-production evaluation purposes only" and figured it's not worth the potential risk opening myself to surprise audits, especially after signing up for a subscription with my real name and address.
but it's now WAT instead of WGA (Score:5, Informative)
Lot's of fun I think - but since Microsoft is changing the name from WGA to WAT you should trust them to put the kill switch in your computer [computerworld.com]
I'm so happy I can do all my computing without having anyone's kill switch in my computer... sorry was I gloating?
Re:How about selling licenses at a reasonable cost (Score:2, Informative)
OEM licenses aren't transferable, so technically you still would not have a legit license in Microsoft's eyes.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Informative)
One of the biggest sources of piracy Microsoft is trying to clamp down on is the local "Joe's Computer Hut"-type shop. Joe puts together motherboards and chips and sells $300 computers, including Windows. But what Joe's customers don't realize is that Joe is installing pirated copies.
And I used to work for one. I took a job in Florida working for a company (AVC Concepts of Bradenton, Florida. Now defunct.) that did just that. The owner sold computers with pirated copies of Windows XP installed. Around this time in 2006, Microsoft started to distribute WGA. Needless to say, we got calls from customers who's machines were flagged running pirated copies. It was my job to pick these machines up, bring them back to the shop and replace the pirated OS with a legitimate copy.
My boss instructed me to lie to customers and tell them that they had a valid copy, but that Microsoft's own Windows Genuine Advantage was fouled up. Blame Microsoft. It's an easy excuse that customers easily accept without much fuss.
This will only increase the number of (Score:3, Informative)
false positives.
For example under Windows XP, if the Firewall blocked the WGA verification internet connection, your copy of XP got called "grayware" because it could not verify the genuineness of the XP install.
If you reformatted and reinstalled, sometimes you got activation problems anyway, requiring you to log on to your Passport account and activate the Windows that way, and then WGA still says you might not be legit.
With Microsoft forcing activation, it will only lead to more "false positives" in genuine Windows usage.
Re:What does that say about the product? (Score:5, Informative)
You're wrong. Non-genuine versions of Windows will still receive critical updates (including security updates).
However: Only through Auto-Update - you will not be able to access the Windows Update website and select the fixes you want to install.
Re:What does that say about the product? (Score:3, Informative)
They do.
Check MSDN or TechNet.
Re:What does that say about the product? (Score:3, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Genuine_Advantage [wikipedia.org]
You test it out if you don't feel like trusting Wikipedia on this. :)
Re:What does that say about the product? (Score:5, Informative)
See the page: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/FAQ.aspx [microsoft.com]
Look for the question: Do security updates require validation?
When Windows is detected as non-genuine, the automatic updates client will only download Critical Updates. It is not possible to use the Windows Update or Microsoft Update sites in that case. However, the individual patch downloads are still available though Microsoft's download site. When downloading individual patches, you can download any Critical Update patches, but validation is required to download other patches. For non-patch downloads validation is usually not required, but it varies.
Re:What does that say about the product? (Score:1, Informative)
You are severely out of date on WGA cracking. I (alongside probably thousands of others) have been using Windows Update with torrented XP for years.
Re:How about selling licenses at a reasonable cost (Score:3, Informative)
Except that I believe Microsoft OEM licenses are not transferable. Crazy as it sounds, that Windows license isn't even yours to use as you please, even though you paid for it. It's lunacy.
Anti-Piracy never works (Score:3, Informative)
Activation is a pain in the ass, always has been. The only result of this "stronger" activation will be more piracy, because the cracked version is liberated from this draconian bullshit.
It's true for games, it's even more true for Windows. If I have the option of installing my genuine, licenced copy and fuss with reactivation every time I upgrade (few months), or going with a cracked/VLK version that doesn't have that nagware, I'll go with the cracked one, because my time is actually worth something to me and I'm not about to waste an hour on the phone with Microsoft's 3rd-world scripted support staff to beg for permission to upgrade my hard disk.
Re:Is he speaking English or New Speak? (Score:1, Informative)
He's probably mostly talking about the Windows distributions (most of them tweaked, with themes, extra programs, and the like) available on torrent sites, some of which have malware bundled with them. You need to take care to download a release from a trusted pirate group, otherwise your install could be infected from the get-go. But that risk is obviously not limited to pirated Windows installs. Paid-for Windows installs are also open to virus infection from software downloads, pirated or otherwise, as well as web-based malware. So this is basically an inaccurate, one-sided presentation -- but then again, so is all marketing.
Re:I Hope They Get Anti-Piracy to Work This Time (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, but not from microsoft.