Microsoft Marketing to OS Pirates, Just Agree to Audits! 197
Stony Stevenson writes "In the latest sign that Microsoft expects to support its Windows XP operating system for the foreseeable future, the company has introduced a new licensing program designed to let users of fake or pirated copies of the business version of the OS upgrade to fully licensed copies. To qualify, users of illegitimate versions of Windows XP Pro must pledge to use only genuine Microsoft software going forward and agree to have their software infrastructure audited. Resellers who push the Get Genuine Windows Agreement to customers will get a cut of any new license fees they generate, Microsoft said."
Audit? Idiot. (Score:4, Interesting)
I suppose the third choice is the company that pays the money, despite being scared, and
What do they mean, exactly? (Score:3, Interesting)
Or do they mean you must avoid software from any vendor but MS?
I read the article but it doesn't clarify.
What does this do for their sales? (Score:2, Interesting)
Disclaimer: haven't read TFA.
Re:What do they mean, exactly? (Score:1, Interesting)
"use only genuine Microsoft software" = use only microsoft software that is genuine
"use genuine Microsoft software only" = use genuine Microsoft software, not non-genuine MS software, or another vendor's software, whether genuine or not"
is my reading of the syntax.
Tinfoil Hat (Score:3, Interesting)
That's very subtle, they're signing to use only genuine Microsoft software, not signing to never use non-genuine Microsoft software. Could they come after me if I signed this and decided to go for BSD, or Linux or whatever?
You think I'm paranoid? Check the universities, schools, and OEM's and if it's easy for them to ship/use non-Windows machines after their "exclusive" MS agreement.
Then throw the audits in. Why would someone come out and say "ok I had 100 hacked XP machines. Audit me and lock me into agreement to buy your software", versus just silently buy the licenses they need?
There's something bigger here, could possibly start going after illegal users based on data phoned home (during Error Reports, Autoupdates, etc.). If they do, I can see audits + mandatory Windows could be suddenly heaven compared to having unleashed the entire legal team of MS on your ass.
Arrrrr righty then.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously though, how is this position not monopoly abuse by MS? Can other software companies adopt this position and still survive? Letting people steal your software, knowing about it, and then getting them to agree to a contract to keep using the stolen version. This must make people that have been busted [osv.org.au] by MS and the BSA feel pretty mad. When can they expect refunds of the fines they had to pay? And a public apology too?
Re:Actually (Score:3, Interesting)
"Some of them have, after that , adquired a legal license, but others, just sit there with their pirated copy."
And some of them just reinstall Windows, turn on Automatic Updates (don't download, let me choose) and deselect "WGA" in the updates. After this, Windows can be updated through Automatic Updates without a hitch.Re:Yeah, right (Score:5, Interesting)
With regards to the audits, there are many software solutions for audits of software, and Microsoft keeps a database of all registered licenses (I've seen this database, a friend of mine was a manager at a call center handling Microsoft activations calls), so it would be easy for Microsoft to run an audit of installed software and compare it with their database of registered software. If they notice any discrepancies, they could then conduct further investigation into the cause. Granted, it would be a lot of work on their part to conduct a more in-depth audit, but it would, invariably, result in revenue for Microsoft, so it would be worth-while for them.
Improving security (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Actually (Score:4, Interesting)
It's nonsensical.
I'm pirating Windows.
I own and have paid for a copy of XP for every computer I'm running it on, but I run pirate (volume license) copies because product activation and WGA are such a pain in the arse that it's better to firewall unpatched machines than license them.
Microsoft has made pirated copies of Windows better products than legitimate versions. That's why this "initiative" is bullshit and will fail.
Re:Sometimes backfires. (Score:4, Interesting)
Not always. Sometimes the move isn't as dramatic or as public as the story in the link below.
http://www.news.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html [news.com]
Often it is much more quiet as the gears start rolling. For me personally, this stuff is a major factor in why I avoid Microsoft EULA licenses and discovered the wonderful world of open standards and open source.
It started with WGA and product activation. I have way too many computers to keep up to date at retail prices. Due to the MS way of doing things, my family has 3 versions of MS Office. My old PIII has a copy of Office 97. It still has the OEM Windows 98 on it. (Don't fret, it's dual boot and only boots Windows for the GPS software which is Windows only) The Wife's XP machine has my copy of Office 2000 which was free from work. Her new laptop for her masters degree came with Vista. Through my employer's homeware agreement with Microsoft we picked up a copy of Office 2007 for a nominal fee of about $20. It is valid only while I am employed with the company. The compatibility issues between versions is a pain in the backside, but providing the same version on all machines is way too expensive.
On the other side, all my machines have Open Office. The license is such that I am permitted to install it on every machine in my home (and give away copies to friends). Do you see a trend here? Incompatibile versions and single install licenses or a a site wide license so all machines can have the same version for the home.
As the Open Document Format becomes standardized it should be obvious to anyone why Open Office and other ODF compatible office software is going to erode Microsoft's market. Tightening the screws is only going to accelerate the adoption of alternatives.
If you have more then 2 computers (laptop and desktop) because you have a family, keeping them all in sync with per seat software is expensive. You either have to decide to spend a lot, or figure out which machine gets the office software. With the competition, everyone can have a legal copy on their desktop and laptop.
After introduction to Sum Microsystems Star Office (home site license for all machines) and then Linux and Open Office, The Microsoft License doesn't look very good for a family SOHO. I can deal with slightly less mature software instead of the big dent in the bottom line.
When I truly need the Microsoft product due to some requirement, I can borrow the wife's laptop. For everything else, Open Office is what I am using. It is on both my laptops, my kids machine, my daughters laptop, my main machine, and my old PIII Dual boot machine. This is the migration that MS can't stop.
Re:Yeah, right (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Yeah, right (Score:3, Interesting)
Well theft is always cheaper. I'm not sure how its easier; you have no store you can go into and simply buy a copy of software?
Well, yes, I could.
But I'd have to actually go to a store, not just tell any of my friends I needed a Windows CD and get it, sometimes right away. Outside working hours, too.
So don't use if, if it doesn't meet your needs or you don't find value in it. You are damaging someone; your making it more expensive for people who do buy it, you're affecting a company which does employ people.
I'm sorry, are you actually suggesting that if everyone bought Windows, it would be cheaper?
I don't know about you, but I've lived my whole life being sucked dry by monopollies, including the German telco giant abusing the monopolly they'd bought - practically with our own money.
Giants get no sympathy from me, for they sure have no sympathy for me. I may not be any better than them, but I don't aspire to be, either. I live in the Balkans; here, morality is a distant second, or even fifth, to survival. No prisoner's dilemma here; everybody cheats, so you lose if you don't.
MS may have more than enough money to ensure it can give its employees raises, but its an exception. Apply your reasoning to other software, especially from smaller shops, and you certainly are affecting someone's livelihood.
Did I say I pirated any other software?
Even on Windows, I try to use as much F/OSS as possible.
The law would protect you if you were creating software (or any other copyrighted product for that matter). You're not being exploited by paying for things you used.
Well, you obviously know very little about the law in these parts. Let me illustrate this: the Wikipedia article about handshake is locked, primarily because people have tried - several hundred times, I believe - to insert a vital piece of trivia. Namely, one of our judges stated in his verdict that pushing a finger in someone's anus cannot be rape, but is rather more like a handshake. And despite many verdicts of this kind, he is still a judge.
You say the software isn't of value to you earlier, yet here you claim it does benefit you? Its not feasible to track down home pirates, sure, the RIAA is finding this out, but if you really don't like MS or its products, don't use them. It seems you're hurting alternatives more than anything else.
I don't use Windows for anything but the things there is no alternative for. Namely, one or two games that don't work under Wine and the few courses I cannot escape Windows.
Otherwise, I'm a Linux user, and I've put Linux on my father's and stepmother's computers, and I'm building a Linux machine for my grandfather, too.
So why not remove it now? Surely you have computer labs if your coursework requires work to be done on computers.
Well, you obviously know about the education here just as much as you know about the law.
My faculty has over 30 departments and one computer lab. I brought my old Linux machine and put it in one of the students' clubs.
I could actually get a licenced copy of Windows cheap, as there is bound to be some sort of agreement between my university and Microsoft - but I refuse to. As long as I'm forced to use Windows, as long as I have to buy a Mac to get a decent laptop without Windows, and especially as long as Microsoft keeps their unfair business practices, I'm opposed to buying their software under any terms.
My logic may be weird, but I don't expect you to understand it, really.
Anyway, one more thing: even if what I'm doing is so terribly wrong, I see absolutely no reason to agree to having a company audit my system in any way. The government may try to do so if they produce a warrant, should they suspect me of a crime; I'm loath to willingly surrender my system to some company for the same
Re:Yeah, right (Score:4, Interesting)
- has most general optimizations done already
- comes with stupid stuff, like the alerter and messaging service, and remote assistance, turned off by default
- It also has the option to automatically install a bunch of nice software. It just asks you about it when it's done with the install. It has open office, the sun JRE, a version of notepad with syntax highlighting and tabs, firefox (with the flash plugin, noscript, and adblock), thunderbird, avira antivir, and 7zip.
- After it's done installing it asks if you want to make a backup. You pop in a DVD and it'll make a recovery disk you can boot from to restore the computer to exactly like it was at the time of installation
This means that instead of it taking around an hour and a half to install windows, tweak it so it acts right, and install all that software, it takes about a half hour. Also, customers really like having a recovery disk like that sometimes (the created disk, by the way, also acts as a regular XP install disk if you want it to).It's better quality, in almost every way, than the "genuine" Windows XP OEM disks.