Microsoft Wins Windows XP WGA Lawsuit

Rish writes "A lawsuit that accused Microsoft of misleading consumers to download and install an update for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) under the guise that it was critical security update has been tossed out. Last month, a federal judge refused to certify the lawsuit as a class action, which would have meant anyone who owned a Windows XP PC in mid-2006 could join the case without having to hire an attorney, and on Friday the same judge dismissed the case completely."

Comments

Re:No good

[happy_place]

I've had my PC repaired and my windows copy invalidated because the motherboard was replaced. The solution: Call microsoft. They fixed it without any questions. No biggie. The "repair industry" really should know this trick, if they're worth their salt.

Re:No good

[Anonymous Coward]

OP here, it's invalid product keys that won't validate. Believe it or not, those VLKs do exist and are used by hobbyist pc people to build their moms, uncles, and other relatives computers. The moms, uncles and relatives blame us, despite the fact that it was their hobbyist relative that really committed the crime.

And, yes, calling microsoft does give you an option there. Buy a genuine copy for a reduced price.

Anybody in the repair industry worth their salt knows there's more than one way to be invalidated by WGA.

Re:No good

[ksemlerK]

Or crack it.

Import this key at every system restart. (saved as c:\windows\system32\reg.key, it would be regedit /a reg.key located in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Run)

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents]
"OOBETimer"=hex:ff,d5,71,d6,8b,6a,8d,6f,d5,33,93,fd
"LastWPAEventLogged"=hex:d5,07,05,00,06,00,07,00,0f,00,38,00,24,00,fd,02

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
"CurrentBuild"="1.511.1 () (Obsolete data - do not use)"
"InstallDate"=dword:427cdd95 "ProductId"="69831-640-1780577-45389" "DigitalProductId"=hex:a4,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,36,39,38,33,31,2d,36,34,30,2d,\

31,37,38,30,35,37,37,2d,34,35,33,38,39,00,5a,00,00,00,41,32,32,2d,30,30,30,\

30,31,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,0d,04,89,b2,15,1b,c4,ee,62,4f,e6,64,6f,01,00,\

00,00,00,00,27,ed,85,43,a2,20,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,31,34,35,30,34,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,ce,0e,\

00,00,12,42,15,a0,00,08,00,00,87,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,94,a2,b3,ac
"LicenseInfo"=hex:9e,bf,09,d0,3a,76,a5,27,bb,f2,da,88,58,ce,58,e9,05,6b,0b,82,\

c3,74,ab,42,0d,fb,ee,c3,ea,57,d0,9d,67,a5,3d,6e,42,0d,60,c0,1a,70,24,46,16,\ 0a,0a,ce,0d,b8,27,4a,46,53,f3,17

+ Anti WPA 3.46

= Away you go

Re:Good. There *should* be consequences for using

[Anonymous Coward]

not to bitch and moan about the EULA that you chose to accept.

I didn't choose to accept the EULA and am not bound by it. Under UK law you
cannot impose terms or conditions after the point of sale.

Re:My friend bought "legitimate" CD

[KarmaMB84]

It was probably a license-less disc normally bought by volume license holders bundled with a stolen volume licensing key which ended up blacklisted.

Re:No good

[Random BedHead Ed]

Totally agreed, OEM users have chosen this pain, even if they haven't realized what they were choosing. That said, the core issue here is that WGA is not a critical security update by any stretch of the imagination. From my limited reading about this suit, its class action status (and the suit itself) sound completely valid to me. Nothing against Microsoft generally, but this was misleading. WGA is a lame excuse for copy protection, not a means for the end user to secure their data, and not a critical patch for anyone - even Microsoft.

Re:They may have won in the courts....

[xtracto]

WGA was the final straw for me and what ultimately forced my hand. I have migrated to Mac and will never look back.

I has a similar situation.

The patriot act was the final straw for me and what ultimately forced my hand. I have migrated to North Korea and will never look back.

Best. Analogy. Ever.
Comparing Apple's control over their platform to North Korea.

Sloppy reporting by Ars

[xymog]

Ars Technica left out a whole bunch of information. The plaintiffs didn't agree to dismissal because the suit was bogus. Plaintiff's' attorneys had a poorly-drafted complaint to start with, spent four years adding and dropping plaintiffs trying to find ones that had actually been "injured", and four years amending the complaint with ever-more-vague claims against Microsoft. This is all part of the public record and anyone can take a look at it. Moral: If you're going to be all mad about something, do your homework first before charging off and filing a lawsuit.

Re:They may have won in the courts....

[trudyscousin]

If you were talking about iPhone OS, you might have a rational argument, and would have earned your moderation.

But I thought we were talking about an operating system for a general-purpose computer. Contrasting Mac OS X with any post- W2K Microsoft OS:

- I've never had to enter an 'activation' key to install it.
- I've never had to worry if it's going to turn on me and accuse me of using a 'counterfeit' version of it.
- I've never had to call Apple and ask, "Pretty please, is it okay to have my computer back?"

I think you're a little bit confused as to "Super-Lockdown-Incorporated" really is.

Re:They may have won in the courts....

[MisterSquid]

You're missing the forest for the trees. Mac OS never asks for validation at any stage of installation. Just put your disc in, install, reboot. That's it. Change your hardware, no need to validate. Ever. Starting with Mac OS v.10.5, upgrade discs no longer checked to see if you had an older version already installed.

Lockdown!=Lockout

You mean String, not DWORD

[Anonymous Coward]

in step 2

Re:They may have won in the courts....

[bdenton42]

Apple primarily makes money on the hardware sales, any money coming in from software is mostly gravy. Microsoft primarily makes money on software sales, so piracy means they get nothing.

If Apple did not have a monopoly on computers which can run OS-X then it's very likely you would be seeing license keys, activation and anti-counterfeiting measures in place.

Re:Good. There *should* be consequences for using

[natehoy]

The first contract was a voluntary agreement. One which I did not have the opportunity to review before I broke the shrinkwrap and rendered the product unreturnable, but still one that I feel I entered into reasonably freely.

The remainder were conditional to receiving a benefit I had already bought and paid for, and the consequences of not agreeing to the new contracts were that my product would not receive updates and therefore become increasingly insecure.

I can understand the "fine, then don't update it", and I can understand the argument that updates are "added value". But I see them as part of what I purchased in the first place. Maybe I'm wrong in that point of view, but I slowly grew more and more uncomfortable with the additional conditions foisted upon me in return for those updates. With WGA, it reached the point where I had had enough.

And, by the way, I have complied with every one of Microsoft's agreements I have "agreed" to. It's just reached the point where I'm tired of "agreeing" to changes to the EULA.

I'm not going to pirate their product, and I'm not espousing that others do so. I don't even want a refund of my purchase price for XP. I feel I've gotten fair value out of it.

I just don't want to spend any more money on software sold by a company that has changed the conditions under which I can use previous purchases with them. If I go out and buy Windows 7, what's the guarantee that Microsoft won't change the EULA again to their favor?

Maybe you don't care, and that's certainly your right.

Re:No good

[Khyber]

You can stick anything in a startup folder and it will try to run or open the file. Putting a registry entry into the startup folder brings up a pop-up window on boot that says "Do you want to install these registry keys?"