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Anti-Piracy Windows 7 Update Phones Home Quarterly
Lauren Weinstein sends in news of a major and disturbing Microsoft anti-piracy initiative called Windows Activation Technologies, or WAT. Here is Microsoft's blog post giving their perspective on what WAT is for. From Lauren's blog: "The release of Windows 7 'Update for Microsoft Windows (KB71033)' will change the current activation and anti-piracy behavior of Windows 7 by triggering automatic 'phone home' operations over the Internet to Microsoft servers, typically for now at intervals of around 90 days. ... These automatic queries will repeatedly — apparently for as long as Windows is installed — validate your Windows 7 system against Microsoft's latest database of pirated system signatures (currently including more than 70 activation exploits known to Microsoft). If your system matches — again even if up to that time (which could be months or even years since you obtained the system) it had been declared to be genuine — then your system will be 'downgraded' to 'non-genuine' status until you take steps to obtain what Microsoft considers to be an authentic, validated, Windows 7 license. ... KB971033... is scheduled to deploy to the manual downloading 'Genuine Microsoft Software' site on February 16, and start pushing out automatically through the Windows Update environment on February 23. ... [F]or Microsoft to assert that they have the right to treat ordinary PC-using consumers in this manner — declaring their systems to be non-genuine and downgrading them at any time — is rather staggering." Update: 02/12 02:08 GMT by KD : Corrected the Microsoft Knowledge Base number to include a leading 9 that had been omitted in the pre-announcement, per L. Weinstein.
I wonder how many false positives this will generate? The thing is, for every person who pirates Windows 7, there is a fairly decent chance that they will be doing so with an activation code which a genuine user may have purchased. I wonder if MS has figured out some way to deal with this issue? I wouldn't bet on it.
I don't see how this is in any way news or shocking. WAT = rebranded WGA.
The only major question I would have, is if it's only calling back every 90 days, how many false positives will it get from people doing major hardware upgrades over that three month span. (I'm assuming it compares the system specs with the license key as WGA did to determine if it was actually the same computer or not)
And at least they just downgrade you - they could instead just shut your system down for a suspected license violation and prevent any log-ins.
Ok, conspiracy theorist point of view here, apologies... but... I mean, they can basically disable/cripple anyone's computer for any reason without notice.
Think of what governments would like to do with this little feature, during wartimes, etc...
Do you really trust Microsoft that much? Do you really want them to have that much control over your computer at any point in time? Your ability to communicate online?
Come on, this is really getting ridiculous.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Windows would be so much better without Microsoft.
My webcomic
it's a lot less trivial for folks who never bought it (and thus pirated) by just disabling this WAT. Nice to know MS is treating their paying customers almost as well as it treats the ones that don't pay.
Essentially we don't buy anything anymore. Everyone out there seems to have control of my computer but me. Yes I can spend the time and disable some of the functions but it's constant cold war of disabling the latest functions only to get hit with the next round. I want to use software not fight OSs. Also I'm tired of fighting software licensing, period. I'm not from the camp that wants free software I pay for every piece, except I do love some open source like Open Office. The point is why do I constantly have to deal updates? My bloody HP Printer driver constantly demands to be updated. I'm not stupid and I know they aren't releasing updates that fast. Many of pay thousands of dollars just for our desk top let alone software and yet everyone insists they should have control of our machines at all times. 10, 15, 20 years ago this was not the case. 15 years ago due to corruption issues I used to reinstall my OS and all software once a month. The machine ran better and the software crashed less. It took me a couple of hours and gave me a fresh machine each time. These days I live in terror of redoing a machine. I have a lot of software and at best we're talking days and generally it's weeks before I can get all the licenses squared away again. It's reached the point where I dread buying a new machine.
I am sorry but there are many other reasons. Linux audio is a pain for game developers. The tools are lacking. OpenGL standards developers sided with CAD companies thereby screwing over game developers. I know I'll be downmodded for saying things that are meant to be brushed under the carpet on Slashdot but I don't care about karma.
In my book, any piece of software which requires getting on the phone is defective by design. You may not mind the ridiculous waste of time and effort which is calling tech support, but I sure as hell do.
Yeah, because it seems perfectly reasonable for my OS to require me to call the developer periodically in order to remain functional. I'm shocked the contractor who built my house doesn't periodically change the keys to the front door so that I can validate every 6 months that I do, in fact, still own the house. Or that my car doesn't connect electronically every few months to make sure I still have the manufacturer's permission to drive it.
Why would anyone have a problem with this sort of thing? As long as any malfunction can probably be fixed with a phonecall, I don't see how anything could possibly go wrong.
I would really pick you up on your point (1) - I'm assuming this will be like Windows XP's "WGA Notification" patch which is also "voluntary".
In that you can avoid installing it, IF you (i) don't use Automatic Updates; and (ii) remember to click "custom updates", then find it in the huge list of patches that comes up on a fresh install, then realize what it is, then deselect it, then click the box saying "no I really don't want this, don't ever show it to me again".
Oh, and if you do have the bad luck to happen to accidentally install it, you can only uninstall this patch with a third-party crack.
All in all, I'd say this patch is less "voluntary" than a lot of malware trojans are.
Don't run Win7.
I don't.
Totally honest and dead serious: I run an IT department. I've tested Windows 7 and Windows Vista. I would considering buying upgrades to Windows 7 (I even put space in my budget for it) if not for all their "activation" and anti-piracy nonsense. For now I'm sticking with the volume licensing version of Windows XP and avoiding WGA as much as I can, while looking to OSX and Linux as possible upgrade routes *largely to avoid activation*.
I don't pirate software, but I view any activation scheme as potentially dangerous, generally inconvenient, completely unnecessary, and even insulting.
Microsoft circa 2010 is very misunderstood on Slashdot. I also had my doubts before being assimilated by the collective.
Microsoft is fundamentally a different company now than in the 90s. We have to be due to competition, compliance, and regulation.
History is very important, but holding grudges only impedes progress. Even Linus Torvalds has said, "Microsoft hatred is a DISEASE."
And you see nothing inherently wrong with the concept that you have to call Microsoft and essentially beg them to reactivate a product you already bought and paid for? If your Windows 7 can be deactivated and essentially blacklisted on Microsoft's whim, what exactly did you purchase? Do you actually own a copy or are you just renting it? Phone reactivation may not be a long drawn-out process, but I still oppose it on principle. It's not my problem that Microsoft is supposedly losing money on piracy, so why should I be inconvenienced in the slightest by it?
Not to mention that I would consider any program that phones home without my concept to be malware, even if Microsoft wrote it.
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
That's because Apple is a hardware company; they don't care if you copy the OS since you need a nice shiny MacBook to run it on and they are the only ones who sell them.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.