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Microsoft Replaces Your Pirated Windows, For Free
th3d0ct0r writes "ZDNet reports that Microsoft is now willing to replace your pirated version of Windows XP. As part of the recently started "Windows Genuine advantage" program, Alex Hilton explains that this incentive aims to bring out customers who bought PC's with Windows XP preinstalled from vendors that pirated the Microsoft OS. Not only do they offer amnesty to anyone coming forth with a pirated version, but also to ship an original version of their product with a valid license to replace the pirated one, each customer being able to get up to 5 such replacements. Hilton says: "Our goal is not to prosecute the individual, our goal is to get to the source".
This has very little to do with converting pirates (which I'm sure even M$ realizes is a losing battle). The piracy sector M$ is genuinely worried about is people who get suckered into buying pirated copies from bootleggers or shady computer shops.
I seriously doubt many knowing pirates are going to turn themselves in after a sudden guilt trip. M$ knows this too. But this puts them in the blogs and the papers, and they appear to be the good guy.
It's a PR move, nothing more, nothing less, move along.
+ Donald Gunth
+ Email: dgunth@quicktek.net
"Caffeine is the greatest lubricant ever created." -ESR
How do you know if you have a pirated copy of Windows?
What if someone buys a computer from some small company, and then installs a pirated copy on it (say they screw up and lose whatever discs they have) and claims the small company put it on there to get another licensed copy. Or what if they buy a computer without an OS (or with Linux) and claims the pirated copy they got was from the small company?
Simple... they replace the software if you hand over the key you used for the "illegal" copy. They get a key that's been distributed and harden the new wave of releases against using that key.
Just drop acid, already, and invent something better... or quit your whining.
If I tell them I bought my PC from an auction or buy-and-sell, etc - but wasn't given the original media. Nobody trackable to turn in, can I still go for a free legal CD-key?
Actually, they hgave been offering money for RPGs.
xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
They can destroy it or keep it, if they offer you amnesty in writing they're tying their own hands.
And if John Q Jackass has his vendetta, he'll wind up spending more time behind bars than the PC store for slander, possible perjury, whatever the formal charge is for inciting a malicious prosecution, etc.
MS is no more or less warm or fuzzy than Apple, IBM, Nintendo or Gillette. Corporations are corporations, not people or cartoon characters. They all exist solely to seperate your wallet from its contents.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
And this particular method is also used by the MPAA. On rental DVD/VHS you have a notice, asking you to call a toll free number in case you are watching a purchased copy of the copyrighted material.
If i am not mistaken, most people who buy a computer, buy it with Windows preinstalled, paying directly or indirectly for the license. I know very few shops that offer you a computer with a virgin harddrive, and then ask you: "So what operating system would you like to buy?"
Now if vendors start selling computers with pirated versions preinstalled, that would substantially affect M$ income from OS sales.
pass me those sparticles will ya?!
Most of the pirates I know of don't even give receipts. They're street vendors, and highly mobile populations.
What stinks about this scheme is that first of all most people that buy from the corner shop guys are not mum and pop (they tend to buy from the larger retail stores), they are the semi computer savvy people and small business owners that need computers a the cheapest prices and probably know very well that they aren't getting a fully licensed version but don't really care. However now that MS are going to reward them with a legit copy and give them a golden handshake - the people that are going to cop it are the PC sellers who (while they should have known better anyway) have probably done the thing on the buyers request anyhow.
Even more scary is if you've built a system for a family member and they think they are doing the right thing by getting a legit copy may implicate you without purposely meaning to but they are trying to get something for nothing.
Another thing, to drive the local competition out of business go buy a few machines from them with a pirated version and then graciously line up for your free legit copies then drop their names and then profit.
I just can't be bothered.
The P2P networks are primarily a distribution medium. The source which Microsft (and presumably any other software company chasing down software pirates) is after would be those warez groups which do the cracking and/or packaging of the software in a form that people can then download and burn to CD/DVD.
Another related source would be chasing those that receive the software ahead of time because they work for a major retail distributor.
There is also the smaller problem of employees releasing the software somehow, but Microsoft seems to have far fewer problems in this area than some game companies.
What's to keep someone from buying five copies of XP Pro from an overseas vendor for $5-10 a piece and then getting legitimate licenses from MS via this offer?
Is MS planning on affecting offshore folks? It seems that their legal reach is limited to select countries.
I bought my PC from Dell and it came with WinXP preinstalled. Can I swap this stupid "restore" CD for an honest to god Windows CD????
Gneo*: That sounds like a really good deal. But...I think I've got a better one. How 'bout I give Microsoft the finger, and I start replacing ALL my crappy installations of Microsoft Windows with GNU and free software, FREE...as in freedom... That way we'll all be free of the evil tyrrany.
Agent Smith^WGates:Hmmm, Mr. Anderson, you disappoint me.
Gneo: You can't scare me with this gestapo crap. I know my rights, I want to use my free software.
Agent Smith^WGates:Tell me, Mr. Anderson. What good is your free software if you can't use a computer without our (evil unpronouncable) NGSCB...Next-Generation Secure Computing Base...?
(If you don't get this, read the Trusted Computing FAQ (incidentally by a guy called Mr. Anderson) and google for trusted (aka trecherous) computing. Also, this study on effects on free software in PDF (also by Mr. Anderson). Also, the FSF's summary.)
[* blend of GNU and Neo. Also note that Gnu sounds like new which is English for `neo'...uhhh...I need a life]
Parts of this post are fair-use copies of The Matrix screenplay and/or parent post.
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]
A new action- call us and we will sell you legitimate versions of Windows at discount if you use pirated ones. The ones who called had BSA knocking on their door next morning and got busted.
Never believe Microsoft or BSA when they urge to come to them and confess you pirate their software.
--Coder
You know what, I'm ok with this. The people who're going to go along with this are the same people who don't actually know they are using a pirated version. I'm sure there are many a people who had their friendly neighborhood geek install a pirated version of XP on their machines. Mostly for free I'd wager. These people know what they have and won't care. If someone buys a brand new machine - my guess probably from a computer show - and finds out that the strangely cheap copy of windows that came with it is a fake, they have every right to be pissed off. I have no problem with Microsoft going after people who make money from piracy. As long as they leave out the guy doing it for himself.
If Microsoft is going to go help the guy who got screwed while they go after the bastard who screwed him, more power to them.
[Just Shut Up and Do What I say]
Yeah. There. I Said it.
If Microsoft had bulletproof copy protection back in the Microsoft Windows 3.1/WFW3.11 days, they wouldn't have become the giant they are today. "Back in the day" lots of folks made a copy of the Windows floppies (yep, people used to sell software on floppies!) that came with the new PC delivered to the office for use on their home PCs, or even to 'update' older PCs in the office. It was a trivial task and it made Windows so prevalent in the work and home environment that by the time Windows 95 was launched people were hooked. Think crack dealer ("first one's free, dude.").
Whether by guilty conscience, rabid fan-dom, or dare I say consumer satisfaction, people were ready and willing to pony up the bucks to get the latest goods, even using a very liberal and unchecked upgrade policy. How many folks here remember doing the math on upgrades and realizing you could save a hundred bucks by using your copied diskettes as a "qualfying upgrade" product? This was also the case for Microsoft Office - you could go out and buy MS Works and an Upgrade Edition of MS Office 4.2 for less than the shelf price of a full-blown Office Standard install and feel like you've laid a can O' whup-ass on "the man".
That's about to change, the hammer is coming down, World Domination has been achieved. Every potential customer has been tapped. Format lock-in and closed document 'standards' ensure consumer lock-in for the next upgrade round. Maybe.
Consumers are geting really tired of the upgrade mill caused by operating system version changes/upgrades which invariably require them to upgrade all their applications as well, and the insufferable gymnastics involved in something as simple as moving or *gasp* copying their root install to a new hard disk. People really are getting smarter about software and the realize that Microsost is more worried about their intellectual property than the users' precious data. In short, they're treating us like criminals; guilty until proven innocent. SOP.
I like it. I see more and more customers looking at alternatives, and even if that means that have to buy a Linux install from us with Crossover Office just to run their MS Office stuff, so be it. The sooner the end user, the part of the equation that really matters, realizes how badly they've been treated, the better.
Sure, beige box twits who install dodgy copies of XP, and Joe Sixpack users who find themselves unable to update the pirated version they just "bought" with their new whiz-bang PC will find their machine rendered more useless with each newly discovered exploit to go wild, are gonna sweat it huge, but it just means more clients to me. I'm armed and ready with whatever distro they think is pretty enough, and can sell it with a clear conscience.
Are you?
one better than mcleodeight
What about the legitimate customers?
I paid for my Windows XP Pro original and they deny me activation for having reinstalled it "a bit too often".
Despite you're desire not to, you most certainly managed to be one anyway - adding a new wierd layer of superstitions on a old legend once grounded in buggy old OS's.
With a non-buggy OS that can read block devices correctly 'cp' will work as well as 'dd'. Or were you talking about a SunOS 1.X system?
from beowulf.org
Well as long as they applied the same conditions, i.e. we'll give you a legit copy if you tell us where you bought this knock-off, then it wouldn't be very different. Pigs will have to fly first.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
A great start to a top ten list. Your response is surely number 1. Here's No. 2: A parrot with Bill Gates head randomly appears on your desktop screaming "Pieces of eight, pieces of eight".
XP Home is crippled and can't join a domain, doesn't have directory/file security, etc. No thanks.
Have you ever *seen* subpixel text rendering? I work on a laptop all day and there is *no way* I would leave that switched on - it gives me a headache to look at for 10 minutes let alone 8 hours.
Network bridging - useful only for the 0.1% of users who try to use XP as a switch. Everyone else uses a switch. (I don't get what you mean by 'moderately complex networks using XP'. XP is a *client* OS. It sits on the desktop. With one network card. You definately shouldn't be trying to build networks with it, except maybe for a bet).
IE6 SP2 - you even mentioned Firefox in your reply.. who needsit?
Yes. That was my point.
If you turn yourself in when there is an expectation of amnesty, which was the case during that incident, there is a very good chance you will still be punished if the agency delivering the promise has a history of deceitful behavior. Very basic.
But then I suppose, somebody functioning at your level of refinement can't really be expected to grasp such 'difficult' concepts. Don't worry. The game is rapidly deteriorating and will soon be moving at a speed you will probably find more accommodating. --Already you are increasingly encouraged to turn in your brown neighbors.
You'll probably fit right in.
-FL
He who leads into captivity. .