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Microsoft Denies the Windows Kill Switch
WindozeSux writes "Microsoft has denied that WGA will kill pirated copies of Windows. According to Waggener Edstrom,"Microsoft anti-piracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer." Microsoft also says that WGA is a necessary part of its campaign to catch those illegally using Windows XP which leads one to think what WGA really does then."
This was obvious from day one. In any deployment of software there will be bugs, and I've read plenty of incidents of WGA not recognising valid installations (or people using invalid keys for valid purchases). Even if the failure rate was 0.001%, that's still thousands of machines "killed" incorrectly. If just one of these happened to be a prominent journalist, IT decision maker or similar, the fallout for MS would be far worse than anything they'd gain by the action.
So, another hyped story killed with a modicum of common sense (and I'm certainly not the first to point this out). I thought IT communities were meant to be filled with rational people?
Oh, that's the usual spin from the intentionally misinformed P.R. flacks (they can't tell what they don't know, eh?). Who can trust a convicted monopolist anyways???
The question is why not kill pirated copies of Windows?
This still will happen in one form or another...from crafting slimy legislation to WGA tricks MS is was and will continue to be a slimeball of a company.
Of cource they deny this; if they let the rumor run, trust in the company is shaken, if they confirm it, their reputation is shattered...and if they go through with it...holy hell, watch out...
I'm just speculating here, just my best guesses (so mods, keep that in mind):
1. They can't (intentionally) kill working copies now. If they killed too many legit copies from too many "false positives", they'd be slapped with a class action that would make the current EU anti-trust pale by comparison.
2. While they can't kill windows, they can divide it into two classes (legit and cracked), and thus allow the legit ones to have all the eye candy and other accessories... not that too many people really care all that much about Power Calculator.
3. It is a test program for a future version of Windows, where they can very reliably kill cracked versions of the product, once they fine-tune their ability to tell a cracked version from a legit one.
I can only hope, however, they don't bog thier products down with so much "detection code" that the app is 90% slower... like recent versions of Norton Systemworks.
The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
Once a record of what is stored on your computer exists at MS, it can be subpoenaed by RIAA, the government, or virtually any company involved in a law suite about virtually anything.
It doesn't matter what MS says about your privacy. If they have your information, they can't protect it from subpoena.
The only safe windows box is one that has no connection to the internet.
If MS would offer whitebox builders the same price that they offer to the big OEMs like Dell and Gateway, they'd probably see a lot less for-profit piracy. As it stands, the small shops can put together good quality hardware and come out slightly ahead of the big companies, but the moment they add in software (including Windows and Office), they end up being forced to offer the complete system at a very uncompetitive price.
Wasn't it some "anonymous developer" who was originally quoted? I can't see how turning off copies of Windows would ever have been in Microsoft's best interests.As others have said, even a pirated copy of Windows is a working entry point into the rest of the ecosystem.
I doubt that even the tinest fraction of Windows users (who do not post to Slashdot) have given a second thought to WGA or even heard any one of the paranoid rumors which fill these pages.
In Soviet Union neighbour calls KGB and your family disappears.
As your life now exists as information - welcome to the digital Gulag.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I'd much rather instead have some nice hackers find out every vulnerability that's possible thanks to WGA being present, and start wreaking absolute hell with everybody's computers, from DDoS attacks to discreetly installing malware/spyware/child pr0n on unsuspecting people's computers, right up to wiping half of the contents of your hard drive. Perhaps then will the masses rise up against Microsoft and say "Why the fuck have you been selling us a flawed product for years and years? Give us our money back!"
:(
Too bad the majority of malicious 'hackers' don't have any clue about the ethical potential of their skills.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
If they had cause to subpoena MS's store of your information about your computer, they sure as heck have cause to order information straight from your computer via a court-ordered diagnostic. And if you did anything to the data you'd be in contempt of court. What a difference!
No, this spin is just... beyond. This is one of the funniest (and saddest) things I've ever read (emphasis mine):
In other words, WGA isn't a means of cracking down on piracy, it's a useful tool that companies can use to save money! This message has obvously been brought to you by the same type of people who try to tell everyone that Digital Rights Management is a wonderful thing because it allows you to access content.
Jesus, are people really that naive? Why can't they just say what it is—a tool to keep people who haven't paid them lots of money from using their stuff. At least I could be on board with their motives. (Being paid for stuff I do is nice.) Am I the only one who is insulted not so much by WGA's existence as I am by how stupid they think we are in pitching it?
Come on folks, think about it, Microsoft is the BSA (Buisness Software Alliance). $15,000 for each 'copy' of Windows... Bigger net, faster returns... when they just run a simple query where the ID is = and count is greater than 10, $150,000 in one shot, one visit. Now imagine a company of 8,000... They just want a mechism to get some serious cash...
User not found: Please check the world and try again.
They might not be a nice company, but I hope they manage to make every single user pay for Windows, soon. I doubt they will, though, because I think they'd rather people use Windows illegally than use an alternative operating system.
Before long MS will be scanning your entire system for "assets" that you may not have paid for. Want to play a dvd on your machine? The system will phone home first to check your account balance before starting the movie.
The WGA is a demo to show **IAs how well the toll booth works. And oh by the way, MS will of course, retain a modest fee for staffing the toll booth.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
When it comes down to it, M$ is a big corporation that is on a crusade to fight piracy and more importantly, make a profit. Does it really surprise you that they will try to destroy pirated versions of Windows? If you don't like it, there are alterantives for Windows out there, so instead of complaining, switch. I don't see what the big deal is. M$ has every right to protect their intellectual property (although maybe they should me more forthcoming about what their software does). The Linux kernel has gotten to the point where most Linux distros can do everything a Windows box can do. The only reason people don't switch is because of this "difficulty" stigma that Linux has surrounding it. In reality however, figuring out how to do things in Linux require just some simple reading and patience.
Alright, I'm done ranting. The point is, yes of course a company thats job it is to make money is going to try to fight piracy in any way possible (regardless of how underhanded you think it is). But the great thing about the OS field is that there are alternatives. If you don't like how Windows is running, switch, simple as that.
thanks for bearing through that rant.
Klingon Software is not released, it escapes, inflicting terrible damage onto the enemy as it does
FTA: "No, Microsoft antipiracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer," said a spokeswoman with Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft's public relations firm.
Ah, but will it disable my installation of Windows? That's the part I care about.
She did not answer the question. She did not deny that WGA can diasble your installation of Windows. Why do we listen to PR flaks so uncritically?
Yea, this kind of stuff is why we get the crap we do from Microsoft. Instead of creating the best products out there they are simply worried about creating technology to protect their market share.
This reminds me of Xerox in the early computer days when they could have ruled the PC market. But no, they were simply trying to defend against the future. See where it got them??
You had better pay attention MicroSHAFT!
Microsoft should be happy there are pirates for windows...it was and is because of the pirates that M$ was able to get a large dominant market share
;p) because more ppl using the OS = more dominance = more business oppurtunities
A large user base (whether legal or not) gave M$ an upper edge to its competitors
Business and support usually goes to where the people are
Why do companies make hardware and software for Windows? -because it has a large userbase
Why do people use windows? -because it has a large current userbase (they go where their friends, families, relatives are)
(offtopic but this is similar to Instant Messenging - Why are so many ppl using AIM? -same reason, because other ppl are)
This is one of the reasons why Steve Jobs offered to give away OS X free to the $100 dollar laptop project (though it wasn't accepted
So to me it seems Microsoft is doing economic suicide by going after the pirates (aggressively anyway)
Listen, Bill Gate's donations to charity keep him from having to pay huge amounts of dollars to the government in taxes. This simply allows him to keep more of his money.
I'm not standing up for Bill Gates, actually if you look at my posting history you'll see I don't like Microsoft, but Bill donating the money to his foundation doesn't allow him to keep more of his money no matter how you look at it. Actually he keeps less of it, tax writeoff for what is donated isn't $1+ for each dollar donated, ie you don't get more than a dollar tax writeoff for each dollar donated. You get less than a dollar for each dollar you donate, depending on what your tax bracket is each dollar donated may only allow you to writeoff 39% or whatever.
FalconShould there be a Law?
switcher \'swi`ch &r\, n.
A person who thinks that they are a Mac user but are really just trying to be. The mistake they make is to try to become a Mac user, when real Mac users are all about not trying to be anything and following your own rules. There is no fashion code to being a Mac user. There are no rules as to what applications you have to run.
Recent converts like you are ruining the old school Mac community because you are posers. Apple releases one OS that popularizes Fitts' law and the Genie effect, and suddenly people assume being a Mac user is all about owning a Mac. But a real Mac user is born, not made. You "switchers" are misrepresenting yourselves and the Mac platform. You're giving people the wrong idea of what Macintosh is.
switcher: shops at hot topic, thinks Firefox is a good Mac app, waiting for OS X port of PayrollPro 2000, follows any hint of a fashion trend (instead of setting them!), wouldn't know Clarus from Carl Sagan.
real Mac user: someone true to who they are, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world.
Yes. Political cartoons can be too much for those with delicate sensitivities. Poor you. Anyway, impartiality was never something Slashdot claimed to have, so why on earth would anybody complain?
There are a hundred and one reasons to think very poorly of Billy boy, and people who like computers are generally very aware of them.
Conversely, those who side with the psychopathic corporate initiative to take over the universe are often quite ignorant of MS's many transgressions, --which probably also means, (if they are into computers), that they aren't particularly smart or generally aware of much of the world. --Typically, such people seem to have the boring host of garden variety fears running rampent through their brains; the fear of homosexuality in your post jumps out at me, and thus your belief that calling somebody a 'faggot' is actually a damaging insult when all it really does is make mature people shake their heads at you.
People only use insults that they would be unhappy to have used against them. I'm a prime example; I'm calling you stupid and ignorant because I'd hate to be called those things myself. You, however, are using 'faggot' as an insult which leads me to think that you probably have a deeply nestled thing for naked men. Poor, poor you.
-FL
Don't get me wrong. I have an iBook G4. Even though the geek in me prefers using linux, OSX is IMHO what a desktop OS should be. But... Apple have taken an open source OS added some stuff and then closed it. They remove posts of forums which point out bugs/problems with their products etc. I do not think Apple hold much of a higher moral ground and if they had MS's market share they would probably be doing similar things and everyone would be making posts like "My next PC will be a Wintel". Corporations are not your friend, so why take any sides? Use them as much as they use you.
...... In a perfect world, copy and licensing protections wouldn't have to exist......
In the real, imperfect world, Apple's solution of making the hardware and software together, for each computer gives them the freedom not to have to go through all of this stupid, wasteful activation crap. It is pretty hard to make a free copy of a whole computer. This is only one good reason to prefer their computers over Windows. Apple makes it easy to replace an existing hard drive with a bigger and/or faster model and then re-installing the OS back thereon, together with all users and settings. No need for a user to phone Apple or have an internet connection.
Once MS makes it hard enough for ordinary, honest users to keep their own computers running, perhaps more and more people will begin to see the advantage of a company that makes the whole widget, all as a seamlessly operating thing that "just works". What other product is there, whose continuing functionality is at the whim of its producer, other than a computer running Windows XP or later? It seems that the attitude of MS is that THEY own your computer and therefore can "license" its use to you on terms they decide, since you are just renting it from them. Why should a car owner have to get permission from the manufacturer to replace or modify the engine or some other part of the car? Apple's model is that the user OWNS the vehicle, MS makes people passengers in a taxi, where MS, the taxi driver decides the route and fee to a destination or whether you are even allowed to go there at all. As a home owner, you are allowed to make minor structural modifications to your living space or repaint the whole place in weird colors, but as a renter, you better get permission from the landlord first. MS sees itself as the landlord of every computer running Windows.
All theory is gray