Vista to Include Stepped up Anti-Piracy Measures

snuffin writes to tell us the Washington Post is reporting that Microsoft announced stepped up anti-piracy measures being implemented in their latest operating system, Vista. From the article: "If a legitimate copy is not bought within 30 days, the system will curtail functionality much further by restricting users to just the Web browser for an hour at a time, said Thomas Lindeman, Microsoft senior product manager." Ars Technica also has coverage available on this new development.

Comments

Announcement

[Daemonstar]

Here is the official announcement made today by MS, if anyone cares. :P

I hope it works better than WGA

[pscottdv]

I am a member of the Microsoft Action Pack (MAP) subscription. It comes with, among other things, 10 Windows XP Pro licenses. I am currently using only one Windows XP Pro license from my MAP subscription and the WGA Notification Tool flags it as counterfeit. Apparently Microsoft is distributing counterfeit copies of Windows XP Pro themselves. Of course, the WGA Notification Tool says that I owe Microsoft a wad of cash to get a "legal" copy. I got it from them, how can it not be legal?

My daughters have a computer direct from Dell. The hard drive went out. When I reinstalled Windows XP Pro on it using the activation code on the sticker, Activation flagged it as counterfeit. I had to call Microsoft and go through a long and complex process before I could get to a human who let me activate. Guess what, the new (refurbished) drive from Dell went out and I had to go through the whole process again. This time they asked some rather pointed questions, but eventually let me Activate.

I have told all of my clients *not* to accept the license agreement for the WGA Notification Tool. Too bad they won't have that option when Vista comes out.

Microsoft had better get its house in order with this WGA stuff or expect a huge class action suit. My understanding is that it is illegal to tell people that they owe you money when they do not.

Re:How much did Steve Jobs pay to bribe MS execs?

[Arcturax]

Um nice piece of FUD there.

You make it sound like people bought new machines that could not run the latest OS. A machine that cost $1500 back in 2000, no it can't run a 2005/2006 release of an OS. My G4 mac is from 2002 and it runs the latest Mac OS just fine and will also run Leopard just fine when it comes out next year. After that, well, that is up in the air but only if they cut off PowerPC support. Besides, by then it will be hopelessly obselete anyway. A computer I bought NOW would probably run the next 5 major releases of OS X... easy. And it would cost a lot less than this thing did back in 2002.

Also the iMac models you reference have not been sold for almost four years. It makes me wonder how long you have been out of circulation.