WGA Turning Off PCs in the Fall?

thesaint05 writes "We all know about Microsoft's WGA initiative that started last July. Most of us were troubled to learn that the WGA has been 'phoning home' to Microsoft at every boot. Well, get ready, because eventually Microsoft may be turning off copies of Windows without WGA installed. According to a Microsoft technician, 'in the fall, having the latest WGA will become mandatory and if its not installed, Windows will give a 30 day warning and when the 30 days is up and WGA isn't installed, Windows will stop working, so you might as well install WGA now.'" A new version of WGA was released on Tuesday and, at least for the time being, Windows users have the option of removing WGA from their systems.

Re:How is this legal?

[drinkypoo]

Is there anything in the EULA that allows them to get away with this?

Uh, if you didn't pay for it, you're not a party to the EULA - and if you were, you'd already be violating the EULA, which says you have to purchase it; so you'd already be in breach if it were considered a contract - which has not been shown on a broad basis, only in a couple of lower courts.

The EULA is probably worth more as bumwad than as a contract, and it's printed on paper way too scratchy to be good for that, either.

Re:How is this legal?

[El_Muerte_TDS]

The EULA is only there for legit users only.

So the question is. What if it's a false positive?

Re:TOLD YOU SO!

[Kremit]

I was in the same boat as you. I switched to Linux (on my main desktop at least -- my servers have always ran some form of *NIX) on October 25, 2001, the same day Windows XP was released.

Now this, this is absolutely rediculous. This is going to have huge repercussions; I happened to click over to the "Genuine Windows Forum" and saw all kinds of posts there of NEW Dell desktops, valid CDs, and other licensed systems having problems with WGA. When these systems stop working, people are going to flip. To them, this will be akin to the computer crashing and taking their data along with it.

Great!

[Jestrzcap]

Honestly, I hope this happens (I will be investing in a transgaming [transgaming.com] account again, but eh). It will help curb my gaming habit. I hope it does the same thing for a lot of other people (if I dont see some more support for Linux and Mac in the gaming world then game developers are going to stop making money off of me)

what is the source here?

[flynt]

Before you get too excited, this is a slashdot link to a zdnet story that links to a blog called Interesting People that posted an email from an end user named David Pollack who got this information from a guy at an 800 number at Windows support. I'll wait until I learn more before making a judgement.

This is a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

How could this possibly be a good idea now ?

Helping people obey the law is a good thing. It seems most corporate IT people are either too lazy or too careless about their jobs to actually read and obey the license agreements of their software vendors; and I strongly encourage any automated tools to make this easier.

With automated tools to help them, perhaps more people will realize that the license agreement is one of the most important aspects of a software package, and with Windows it carries incredible risk -- both legal risk because Microsoft likes suing its customers [com.com] and technical becausde thier EULA gives them the right to shut down your machines at their will with no due process or trial or anything.

But bottom line -- if you're not doing anything illegal you have nothing to fear from these microsoft programs, so quit complaining. If you are illegally copying Windows I have no sympathy for you. If you aren't sure (as most companies are), I recommend you switch to software with a license you can understand (like Red Hat's -- you bought the software - you can install it wherever you want).

Fortunatelly more of our critical systems are moving to Linux so not at risk from either of those legal and technical vulnerabilities.

Re:A disturbance in The Force? How stupid is this?

[tinkerghost]

That just screams massive user migration.
... to Vista, which is precisely what MS probably wants.

Except that Vista OEM production isn't going to be set until late fall - OEMs are still worried about Christmass sales dates, and off the shelf purchases for people with like-new PCs won't be ready until late January at best. Let's face it, if OEMs arn't shipping Vista by late October, Vista is going to miss xmass this year. That means tax time before there's another major wave of purchasing. And if they impliment a shutdown, it's not going to force more purchases, just more keygen scripts and other hacks. - firewall hacks to redirect to another port with an auth responce?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

9x is hardly worth the mention

[lahs0n]

Ever try 2000?

A pirated copy is still genuine, according to the makers themselves!

Let's kill the boiled frog meme

[spun]

It's just a myth. [uga.edu] Even frogs aren't that stupid. OTOH, it's a great metaphor. Anyone have any ideas for a good replacement?

Re:A disturbance in The Force? How stupid is this?

[poolmeister]

You'd be surprised, I spoke to one guy who bought a new PC because he was having problems with malware!.... Really!

Re:Oh this is going to be good for PR...

[element-o.p.]

Quote: Hey, I just use it for the mail server program because I can't stand sendmail.

So run Postfix--much easier than Sendmail, but powerful enough to be used by ISPs.

Re:Here's my suggestion

[shawngarringer]

Except you agree in the EULA that they have the right to change the EULA at any time...

And, you don't own anything, they've given you a license to use it... which as I mentioned above, they can change at any time.

Cheers.

Re:A disturbance in The Force? How stupid is this?

[Asphalt]

Grab a copy of XP from here.. http://www.torrentspy.com/torrent/781830/Windows_X [torrentspy.com] P_SP2_Gold_Reloaded_Edition_Unattended_Install

then run the WGA crack that you got from here..
http://www.torrentspy.com/torrent/782179/Windows_G [torrentspy.com] enuine_Advantage_WGA_v3_3_1_5_540_0_Taag

Most pirates, don't need to know anything about cracking/pirating other than "what bitorrent" is..

I have never knowingly pirated a commercial software program. Ever. And I have been using computers since 1982.

However, if this WGA thing turn out to be true (which honestly it may not), then I will have no qualms about starting. I built my own computer and paid retail for XP Pro. If they are going to screw it up, it will be the last dollar from me.

I never illegally downloaded music until I started having spyware and rootkits installed on my machine, now I never buy CD's under any circumstances.

Morally, I consider it fair compensation now. Treat me right, I treat you right. You fuck me, I fuck you. Not a pretty motto, but I've always lived by it and it has worked for me more often than it hasn't.

In 2004 I bought an Averatec laptop computer with XP Home pre-installed. I have been using it for 2 years. Just last weekend I had a WGA pop-up telling me that WGA had determined that my copy of Windows was "not genuine" and to click a box to "correct" it.

I did not click the box, and I used Tiny Personal Firewall to block the phoning home of WGA. I paid for the Windows on the machine, and I am not jumping through hoops to prove it. Now, only very select connections can use the Internet through the firewall (which can suck while trying to use Wi-Fi in the airport), and I have to make sure that it cannot possibly phone home.

My main concern is that they will find a way to make it "phone home" during boot, before the firewall loads.

In any event, if the copy is disabled, I am actually one of the few who will actually take the time out of my busy life to file a civil suit at my local courthouse. Everyone says they will do these things in internet dick-swinging contests, but I actually will. I may not win, but I will do it anyway.

Also, I will pirate the living shit out of Microsoft software.

Again, assuming this rumor us true, which it very well may not be.

If i'm going to do the time, i'm going to do the time. Period.

Re:A disturbance in The Force? How stupid is this?

[Overly Critical Guy]

Why do people capitalize "MAC?" It's Mac, short for Macintosh. MAC means something else.

It's like those people who call it OS/X or OS-X. Where are they getting these magic hyphens and slashes from?

Re:A disturbance in The Force? How stupid is this?

[paganizer]

They can turn off my copy of Win2k?
wait a second... I'm thinking this only applies to that graphics and DRM add-on to Windows 2000... what was it's name again? oh yeah! Windows XP.
But seriously, folks; I just bought a Media Center Laptop for $$$$; I'm going to get around this problem by never letting microsoft.com near my machine, at least not until I can figure a way to get Win2k or Debian to run all the bells and whistles.

Re:How is this legal?

[jrumney]

So, like SCO, Microsoft is going after its own customers with this one. The pirates never installed WGA in the first place, its only people who, like myself, disabled update KB905474 after I got sick of having to reboot my PC again a few minutes after I switched it on every Tuesday morning, because Microsoft had issued yet another "critical update" to WGA that requires a reboot after installing.