WinXP Keygen Foils Product Activation

Bill Gates' Friend's Brother's Roommate writes: "The Register has a story on a working key generator that produces 25 valid Windows XP Product Activation Keys in a few hours. As author John Lettice summarizes, 'So the question as regards keymaking software is whether or not Microsoft has any way to differentiate between generated keys and the ones it has issued itself. If not, this generation of WPA is now surely toast.'"

Comments

Re:Many responses

[maddman75]

lol man, don't bother with this crowd. Example:

"There are lots of bugs in linux, they have to keep releasing kernel updates to fix them, like the SNMP one." - Scored down, -4, troll.

"There are lots of bugs in windows, they have to keep releasing patch updates to fix them, like the IE6 one." Scored up, 5, informative.

You see how it works around here. :)


Not really. I've recently been modded down for making cracks at Microsoft - relevant ones - on a story about Microsoft. I poke at microsoft because I don't like thier products. I have to use them in my profession, and just about every task I do it occurs to me how much easier, more reliably, and quickly I could do it on a Unix based system, politics aside.

Re:You have the right to use the software you buy

[cduffy]

...but what would the ratio of them to users who just need a key to pirate the software be? I'm going with many more pirates to more legit (not totally legal as you are not complying with the EULA [which is a whole other issue in itself]) users

You know the phrase "Better that 10 guilty men go free than 1 innocent man goes to jail"? Same thing can be applied here; better that 10 pirates find their jobs slightly easier than one legitimate customer gets screwed because the Microsoft reps don't believe he needs his key reactivated for a fourth reinstall on his new machine.

Also, it's quite questionable as to whether the EULA is binding; there are many cases where it appears to provide no rights not already available to anyone who fully owns their copy of the software, hence lacking the contractual requirement of consideration.

Re:That sucks!

[Dave_bsr]

You know, if a company wanted me to PROVE that I was innocent of "piracy" before I could use a product I'd paid for, I'd tell them to shove it up their ass - I'd then take it back to the store and return it as defective (which it provably is.)

Maybe you should blame the pirates - because you know, none of this is their fault...