Windows 7 Leaked To Pirates By Microsoft?

nandemoari writes "The beta version of Windows 7 has been widely distributed through torrents and other file sharing systems. But now some commentators claim Microsoft deliberately allowed the package to get into the hands of pirates. 'I'm not being critical here, as some Microsoft Watch commenters will surely claim. It's rather smart marketing. Microsoft fills a big news void with something bloggers and journalists will write about. The suspense of stealth downloads from torrents and races to post the best screenshots first make the Windows 7 leak buzz all the more exciting. For other people, there is delight in seeing Microsoft squirm because Seven leaked early. Not that I see much squirming going on.'"

tag: hypocrisy?

Hmm... let's see ... pirated software, where even having it is proof that it's pirated, as it's not released yet. And yesterday's news on WGA convictions. [slashdot.org]

That's not hypocrisy -- that's a trojan horse.

Re:tag: hypocrisy?

That said, I think a real, official open beta would be a very interesting move.

Isn't that what is happening with Vista right now ?

Re:tag: hypocrisy?

There's one thing you're not quite taking into consideration: patents. MS can't release anything in any form (including beta) and then file for a patent. They need to file for the patents first, and only once the paperwork hits the US PTO can they release a beta.

Another piece of advice: don't rely on random dudes on slashdot for legal advice, including me:

From http://www.bitlaw.com/patent/requirements.html [bitlaw.com]:

In order for an invention to be patentable, it must be new as defined in the patent law. This novelty requirement states that an invention cannot be patented if certain public disclosures of the invention have been made. The statute which explains when a public disclosure has been made (35 U.S.C. Section 102) is complicated and often requires a detailed analysis of the facts and the law. The most important rule, however, is that an invention will not normally be patentable if:

• the invention was known to the public before it was "invented" by the individual seeking patent protection;
• the invention was described in a publication more than one year prior to the filing date; or
• the invention was used publicly, or offered for sale to the public more than one year prior to the filing date.

So as long as you file within a year of disclosure, you can still get a patent.

Well, I'm convinced.

The TFA sums up evidence as: "it's what I would do" and "MS doesn't seem too worried".

I don't doubt they did leak it on purpose...but TFA gives no evidence...save some personal projecting.

then why

would microsoft send me a take down notice to remove windows 7 files uploaded onto our hosting servers by one of our customers last week?

Re:then why

would microsoft send me a take down notice to remove windows 7 files uploaded onto our hosting servers by one of our customers last week?

Because this is supposed to be black ops. Not even Microsoft knows they're doing it.

Still - this is all just hot air. There is no way we will ever know whether MS leaked 7 on purpose or not.

Re:then why

Because the clever marketing people who 'leaked' the beta do not communicate with the licensing and piracy teams.

Leaked videos!

Here is a link to leaked videos of the KDE 4.2 beta!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg0ma-qKHrM [youtube.com]

There are numerous of those on that site, Youtube.

It should by posted under "Threats for '09"

Windows 7 has been widely distributed through torrents

Does that qualify as a distributed virus attack?

This is so exciting!

Waiting for Windows 7 is like waiting for the new Ford Taurus to come out!

-jcr

Ha, I've practically had it foisted on me

By MS guys at various events. And no, MS knows full well that Vista was a failure, and generating underground hype for their next rev is kinda a big deal for them. It's worked for them in the past, and they figure it'll work for them again.

Anyway, that's what I heard from one of their employees. But it's not a new thing, I've known a lot of folks who would tell me, off the record, that they know they're a little too "carefree" with their software for many years. The general thought there is that they'd rather have their stuff pirated than not used, but the business folks and shareholders wanted the WGA crap inserted to make themselves feel better. While taking a very broad shot at the pirates that were burning, repackaging, and reselling their stuff. Those are the types of pirates that pretty much anyone can agree are assholes.

History repeats itself--think back to Win95...

This is nothing new... Microsoft did the exact same thing in '94-'95 with Windows 95, only back then we got our leaked betas by way of pirate BBSs and 28.8 modems. This unofficial beta test put pre-release Win95 in the hands of thousands of computer geeks, who ended up lining up outside CompUSAs, Computer Citys, and Best Buys to get their copies of Win95 at 12:00am on 8/24/95... Win95's positive buzz was a direct result of the leaked betas.

Now, Windows 7 needs to deliver just like Win95 did in terms of app compatibility, drivers, and improvements...

Oh, and for the guy above who said that Vista's driver issue has improved--it really hasn't. People just replaced their older hardware, so the improvement is mostly perception.

Common tactic

This appears to be a common tactic for television producers. Around pre-season times there is an inevitable leak of almost all new shows that would appeal to the demographic that would know how to download them. This is in fact quite smart because they probably realize:
1)If these people will download a pre-air, they're probably going to download the regular show too, so downloading now or later has the same effect
2)People are going to talk about the show and give feedback
3)Leak it early enough and you might have a chance to tweak some things

now a TV show and operating system are in different places all together..but the concept is the same..

Re:That's no leak

Actually, the interior of a watermelon is very nearly black until it's cut open. Light has that strange effect, you know.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

Good idea! Reset the clock to Decemeber 31st and see if it zunes.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

I think drivers were only one piece of the problem, and a fairly small piece at that. The generally viewed performance and requirements are what really caused Vista to tank in the eyes of consumers. Good as it may be for some, not everyone has a new computer or a desire to buy a new one. Couple that with bad performance on budget laptops and there's your whole case right there.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

Also the fact that literally nothing was in the same place as it was in XP meaning there was a learning curve right out of the box in finding where the settings have been moved to. I know I got a bit more than frustrated when I tried to actually do anything in Vista. It wasn't because it was slow, (I didn't really notice it being "fast" either) but everything was renamed and/or moved around so much it made changing things a bit of a hunt and peck routine I haven't had since Win95.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

I've never yet had to use Vista myself, but in my limited experience helping friends who do use it, the "budget laptops" issue looks to be a serious one. A friend of mine was given a budget laptop for work, but he couldn't get wireless networking to work and asked me for help.

The first thing I noticed was that it took something ridiculous like 10 minutes to start up, and was incredibly slow even when no applications were running. So I went to the "System" control panel, and discovered the laptop had only 384MB of RAM.

So...it's a new laptop, that ships with Vista, and it falls short of Vista's minimum RAM requirements? I never did figure that one out.

I finally told him that the first thing he needed to do before I could help him was to get a laptop that met or exceeded Vista's minimum system requirements. I didn't hear anything about it after that.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

Chances are, it meets Vista's physical RAM requirement of 512, and is just taking that much for video.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

I think drivers were only one piece of the problem, and a fairly small piece at that. The generally viewed performance and requirements are what really caused Vista to tank in the eyes of consumers. Good as it may be for some, not everyone has a new computer or a desire to buy a new one. Couple that with bad performance on budget laptops and there's your whole case right there.

More of an addendum than anything else... XP released at a time when 32-128MB of RAM on a system was fairly standard. XP required 64MB as a minimum to install, and didn't really start running very well until you had at least 256MB, which happened at large in the consumer market about 6 months after XP hit the shelves.

Vista released when 512MB-1GB was fairly standard. It runs poorly on anything less than 2GB. It's the same problem that XP had when it first released... now that new computers are generally coming with 2GB at a minimum, and 6 or 8GB is available from most major manufacturers, Vista's performance has reached acceptable levels.

I think the problem is that Microsoft has been providing its developers with very powerful workstations to design software on. Maybe for the next major releases of Office and Windows, they should replace all the workstations with '486 DX/66 with 16MB of RAM.... Hopefully then they'll learn the meaning of lean code again.

Re:I guess thats one way to get Beta Testers

Whether it's Windows 7 or not, there's one thing that's guaranteed: it's going to be a pane.

Re:Buzz?!?!?

Perversions make this life fun :)

Forgot something...

Burma Shave.

I'll take you on...

I appreciate your rappin',
Dat win dose's still crapin',
N' all the bloggers yappin',
Then watchin' pr0n n' fappin'.

Looks like Microsoft has grown a pair,
Taken on to torrents outa despair,
Thus the new OS' come to be,
The great Windows 7 conspiracy.
Some say 't looks similar to KDE,
N' other things based on BSD.

But I really dun give a shiz,
'Bout Aero, Aqua OR Compiz.
Just wanna have all my apps,
Run smooth as ass on x86.

peace

Re:If authenticode is cracked this time, there wil

I may be misunderstanding you, but Authenticode is a technology used to verify the publisher of binaries so that there is some assurance "lol32.exe" is worth running.

As such, Authenticode isn't an anti-piracy feature insamuch as its an anti-malware feature. As and end user, you'd not want want this to be busted.

You may be thinking of WGA and WPA, the former being the "Genuine Advantage" stuff that Windows Update and MS Download center look for, and the latter being Product Activation [that cares about keys and key activation, etc].

The latter two are most certainly anti-piracy features and confer no functional/usability advantages to the enduser who isn't concerned with the legality/legitimacy of their installation.