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Microsoft Kills Office Anti-Piracy Program
CWmike writes "Microsoft last week killed the Office Genuine Advantage anti-piracy service that first checked — and later nagged — whether customers were running legal copies of Office. ZDNet blogger Ed Bott first reported on Microsoft's move after a tipster pointed him toward a support document on the company's site. That Dec. 17 document simply noted that Office Genuine Advantage 'has been retired,' but offered no explanation. A Microsoft spokeswoman told Computerworld on Monday, 'The program has served its purpose and thus we have decided to retire the program.'"
"They practically encouraged people to pirate Windows in the 3.x days."
It worked superbly with Office 97 etc.
If you want to catch fish, throw some chum before the bait with the hook in it. :)
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Did you forget the Microsoft Internal document that said they would prefer people would pirate their products over them using something else?
vi +
That's not really true. Microsoft has always been strongly against piracy.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2098235.ece "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," the Microsoft co-founder and chairman told Fortune magazine.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/node/2803
WSJ: But those were stolen, correct?
Gates: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content that the owner wasn't paid for. So yes.
Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox’s store before I did and took the TV doesn’t mean I can’t go in later and steal the stereo.”
–Bill Gates
“In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and I fished out listings of their operating systems.” –Bill Gates
Bill Gates on Piracy: "They'll get addicted, and then we'll collect"
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