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Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage (OGA)
Ant writes "PC World is reporting that Microsoft's Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program will require mandatory validation of Office software starting October 27 (2006)." From the article: "Similarly, starting in January, users of Office Update will have to validate the legitimacy of their Office software before they can use the service, Microsoft added. Users absolutely hated the first iteration of the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program, and their protests pressured the company into revising it about a year after it launched in July 2005."
It is getting easier and easier to continue using Open Office is seems...
I don't understand Microsoft. The Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is actually very easy to defeat, and I'm sure this new OGA will be just as easy. Why irritate customers when the people who intend to use without purchasing it will do so anyway? Did they buy a copy of Sony's playbook titled "How to piss away your loyal customers and then blame them for your lack of growth"?
I really don't get it. Why continue to do something after it's been proven ineffective?
Aero
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
The joke's on Microsoft. Exactly how many people use Online templates or Office Update? Compared to people who use Windows Update, I'm guessing not that many. And of those people who do use Office Update *and* don't have a legit copy of Office, how many of them are savvy enough to *ahem* figure out/find a way around the mandatory OGA?
...To never, ever upgrade from Office 97.
Seriously... The more companies make the old or cracked versions of their products more useful than the latest-n'-greatest, the less right they have to whine about illegal copying and decreased sales.
Whether we talk about DVDs or WGA or software that phones home, people just want to use what they own (and spare me the BS about licensing-vs-owning). Making that harder will eventually drive people to the competition, up to and including piracy.
You mean all those worthless Office Online Templates will be unavailable to users with non-validated copies (*cough* er...pirated) of Microsoft Office?
Oh my what a blow to the software piracy market . . .
/* somewhat functional - fix later */
I think that WGA and now OGA are the first step down the slippery slope towards subscription based software. Valve's Steam already requires activation of products over the Internet and automatically updates the software as well and it has been very successful in frustrating copyright infringers. If Word was patched automatically everytime a new bug was discovered like Steam then OGA all-in-all wouldn't be that bad. Why (W|O)GA causes uproar is that you may experience a denial-of-service on your own software. If you're a pirate then too bad - go get OpenOffice, once ODF emerges you won't care about Microsoft Office anyway. But if you're a business then the "No one ever got fired for buying IBM." principle kicks in - and sheeple buy what everyone else is using which at the moment is Microsoft Office. Don't get me wrong, Microsoft Office is really nice and all but once Open Document Format get's added then there is no problem of lock-in anymore - you'll buy your last version of Word to export your information into ODF and never look back.
Shh.
And the reason is that 90% of the current "pirates" would *not purchase what they're using but switch to a free (as in good) alternative.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
I work at a fairly large chain that sells, amongst other things, computers. None of these PCs come with Word or Office, rather they come with Works. I explain that Works may do what they want. I explain how much Office is, and sometimes I mention you can get Open Office for free, since I don't realistically think many people are going to lay out the cash in store for the software. Know what they say typically? 'I know someone who's got office, I can get them to copy it for free.' I used to mention product validation but now I just don't bother. It's just they know Word and Office and that's what they want, by hook or by crook.
The more the Evil Empire irritates its users, the more opportunity arises for other vendors.
Remember when using MS office was the path of least resistance?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Indeed. It is like software companies don't understand that a little piracy supports their dominance. Just like giving away software to schools actually helps "indoctrinate" new users.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
One is supposed to do research before a product release. However, this is Microsoft we're concerning ourselves with. If you are Microsoft, you have all of the rights and privileges that come to those who dominate market share:
- The right to do whatever the hell you want, whenever you want.
- Have the belief that you know what's best for the consumer - even when they tell you otherwise.
- That you may abuse the "uneducated" consumer whenever you wish, via a graphical user interface, or other means.
- A perfectly legitimate and exclusive concern for your bottom line alone - without regard to what that means for the quality of your product.
- The delusion that people will be happy with things like DRM, WGA, and OGA, if they'd just give them a chance.
- The delusion that DRM, WGA, and OGA will not get in the way of normal people doing normal, legal business related tasks.
- The short-sightedness that only a good, solid ivory tower provides.
- Great benefits for all of your employees.
So, no - they don't have to ask the consumer anything.
Cheerio!
Could anything more plainly prove that if you want access to your OWN data, you'd better not use any proprietary tool to create/store it -- especially not Microsoft.
First they'll lock you out of the O/S; then they'll lock you out of the tools.
"Nice lot of data you have there. Be a shame if anything happened to it..."
you had me at #!
when i have to type in a 36 digit number on the phone after a 10 digit phone number and then type another 36 digit number into the pc and this takes 3-5 minutes then it wastes my time. when i have to do this a few times a week for customers systems that have come back infected and its taken them a few hours to find their original disks and licence code then it wastes their time.
when the os is responsible for the infection in the first place and this same comapny are wasting mine and the customers time double checking that we are stealing their crappy software then yes i object and resent been treated like a criminal. the black bubble is unobtrusive and i can ignore it. i don't have to interact with it.
thankfully more and more of our customers are using firefox. open office is on an increasing number of systems. some are asking questions about mac and 1-2 of the braver ones are asking about linux. so microsoft will shoot themselves in the foot even more with this.
Okay, so next time you're at a store and HAVEN'T stolen anything imagine you leave, are accosted in the parking lot by security who then take away your... shoes, let's say. How does THAT make you feel?
I think that's why the majority of people hate Genuine Advantage and it's predecessors.
I agree, when they say $500 billion dollars were lost last year to piracy, that implies that everyone who would have pirated the software would have bought it if they weren't pirates.
This is a false assumption imho, because although I may pirate software, it doesnt mean that I would buy it just to play with it, photoshop as an example, lots of people have photoshop installed and use it for hobby/educational reasons. If they couldnt pirate photoshop, they'd just use paintshop pro or the gimp or some other free alternative. It's a supply and demand thing, with the price at $0 the demand is great, but when you raise the price to $200+ dollars the demand for the software is greatly decreased.
Perhaps they could interpolate the supply/demand graph vs pirate copies and actually estimate the number of people who would have actually bought the software instead of pirating it, but anti-piracy measures and inconveniencing the customer might curb piracy, but it wont be viewed as a feature to increase the demand of the product, if anything it'll decrease it.
You are also making assumptions that are not necessarily valid, e.g. that all machines have internet access.
You are also looking at this in the context of single-purpose workstations. It is one thing to get a new key for one program, but what if you have to get twenty or thirty new keys? I don't know what your Real Work is, but my Real Work does not involve spending all day on the phone with software vendors.
You are also ignoring the issue of what happens if the company ceases to exist or stops supporting its software. Then it becomes a problem for legitimate users.
It would be like a security camera, if that camera wouldn't let you out the door of the shop until it certified that you were a valid shopper. Or something. Apples? Oranges?