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Microsoft Marketing to OS Pirates, Just Agree to Audits!
Stony Stevenson writes "In the latest sign that Microsoft expects to support its Windows XP operating system for the foreseeable future, the company has introduced a new licensing program designed to let users of fake or pirated copies of the business version of the OS upgrade to fully licensed copies. To qualify, users of illegitimate versions of Windows XP Pro must pledge to use only genuine Microsoft software going forward and agree to have their software infrastructure audited. Resellers who push the Get Genuine Windows Agreement to customers will get a cut of any new license fees they generate, Microsoft said."
So you don't think you should have to pay for the product that someone else produced? I assume then you didn't pay for the games you play either. Ya, its your computer, it doesn't give you the right to rip of the work of other people. If you don't want to pay for the OS, then don't use it.
Its ironic the lengths that MS haters will go to so that they can still have a copy of MS software.
Well, yes, I could.
But I'd have to actually go to a store, not just tell any of my friends I needed a Windows CD and get it, sometimes right away. Outside working hours, too.
How often do you need the cd? Besides, you only need to buy the cd once, and you have it. Seems like a pretty lame excuse to me.
I'm sorry, are you actually suggesting that if everyone bought Windows, it would be cheaper?
Yes, quite possibly. If I was making software, and I noticed that about 10% was pirated, I would factor that in to the cost of my next release. Not to mention extra time spent coding any anti-piracy measures.
I don't know about you, but I've lived my whole life being sucked dry by monopollies, including the German telco giant abusing the monopolly they'd bought - practically with our own money.
Sorry, you can't compare a telco monopoly to Windows. There are alternatives, and you can switch right now. You even say games are the only reason you keep windows. Sounds to me then you should just give up games on the PC and use software you aquired ligitmately.
Giants get no sympathy from me, for they sure have no sympathy for me. I may not be any better than them, but I don't aspire to be, either. I live in the Balkans; here, morality is a distant second, or even fifth, to survival. No prisoner's dilemma here; everybody cheats, so you lose if you don't.
I see, so its ok to steal from people that have worked to earn more than you. For your informatin though, not everyone cheats, not everyone is a criminal. If you really believe that, perhaps its time to go back to absolutionish rule and let the government do whatever it wants; after all, everyone is a criminal anyway, so why not let them do anything they want.
Did I say I pirated any other software?
Even on Windows, I try to use as much F/OSS as possible.
I dunno, I tend to think that if one can rationalize stealing one item, they can rationalize stealing something else. You admit you steal, so I don't really have much reason to believe you only stole this one thing. That's the problem with someone that steals, its a dishonest act, and so your honesty gets called into question.
Well, you obviously know very little about the law in these parts. Let me illustrate this: the Wikipedia article about handshake is locked, primarily because people have tried - several hundred times, I believe - to insert a vital piece of trivia. Namely, one of our judges stated in his verdict that pushing a finger in someone's anus cannot be rape, but is rather more like a handshake. And despite many verdicts of this kind, he is still a judge.
And this has what to do exactly with copyright? Oh right, nothing.
I don't use Windows for anything but the things there is no alternative for. Namely, one or two games that don't work under Wine and the few courses I cannot escape Windows.
Again, does your college not provide a computer lab for which you can do your work? How about a student license for Windows? Those are typically MUCH cheaper than retail. Why not give up games on the PC? Can I steal a Wii because there's an exclusive game on it I want to play?
Well, you obviously know about the education here just as much as you know about the law.
My faculty has over 30 departments and one computer lab. I brought my old Linux machine and put it in one of the students' clubs.
How would I even know what country you were in unti this post? At anyrate, it sounds a rather cheap university.. maybe you should have investaged better what the courses would require and what kind of facilaties it had before you decided to enroll.
I could actually get a licenced copy of Windows cheap, as there is bound to be some sort of agreement between my university and Microsoft - but I refuse to. As long as I'm forced to use Windows, as long as I have to buy a Mac to get a decent laptop without Windows, and especially as long as Microso