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Microsoft Files a Copyright Infringement Lawsuit For Activating Pirated Software
First time accepted submitter Esra Erimez writes Microsoft has filed a complaint at a federal court in Washington accusing person(s) behind an AT&T subscription of activating various pirated copies of Windows 7 and Office 10. The account was identified by Microsoft's in-house cyberforensics team based on suspicious "activation patterns." Despite being one of the most pirated software vendors in the world, Microsoft doesn't have a long track record of cracking down on individual pirates. From the descriptions used in the complaint it seems likely that the target is not an average user, but someone who sells computers containing pirated software.
Let's have some outrage over creators seeking to, gasp, control their creations — and be paid for their use.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
If this is someone who is proxing activation for after selling non legitimate versions of windows/office they should be hit hard.
At any house brand computer store in China the computers come windows installed and activated but no disks. If you insist on an install disk the price for it is, amazingly, the same as buying windows retail. The whole activation system is fundamentally flawed, but the question is, how to make it 1) less of a pain for legit users and 2) harder for pirates? These two goals seem exclusive, alas.
...that should be easy to view at work.
I worked at a small computer repair shop that did this many years ago. I was young and didn't know any better, and the anti-piracy measures weren't all that hard to get around yet. Everything was pirated, but about 80% of those system re-installs and used computer sales could have been reactivated legitimately by just using the license sticker on the case.
I hope that isn't the case here. "Oh, I could have done this legitimately for $0? God dammit!"
Are you high?
What do you think will happen if everyone that makes software requires you to plug in some stupid dongle to make it work? Let's even assume they don't have any nasty quirks where they try to kick each other off or where the software identifies the wrong dongle as "its" and, due to the dongle of course giving the wrong answer, locking up. But where the hell do you think I should plug in a few dozen dongles?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Yeah, We all need dozens of security dongles for all the various copyrighted software we use. And then you're outta luck when the new puppy gets ahold of one of your dongles and chews it up because it can't be bothered to play with the chew toy you spent good money on....
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
Any attempt to oppose an idea on the grounds, that it is "too old", must demonstrate, how the time has changed the argument. See also, the "Appeal to novelty" fallacy.
The possible exceptions are arguments over things, which are illogical by their very nature — such as clothing- or hair-styles — the domain, where, I believe, the very notion of "this so yesterdayish" originated.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
It sounds like a shop that might not be installing windows the right way (sysprep), and instead is using a single product key to activate multiple systems. Either way, if Microsoft didn't like it, then they shouldn't have allowed the activation.
The windows 7 I installed was pre-activated when I downloaded it from the Pirate Bay. Much easier. I don't know if I could legally downgrade from the windows 8 the system had preinstalled but piracy was so easy that I didn't bother to find out.
Don't throw me straight lines...you know where to plug the dongles.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
That's what you get for adopting a subversive open source zealot dog. I bet you named him "stallman".
Or you could use software activation, as other software companies do? As Microsoft does? Because Windows 7 and Office 2010 activation were certainly put there to intentionally facilitate copying.
As for your comment that hardware dongles are a "best practice," pull the other one, mate. Nevermind that the $1 dongles don't work.
I think there's a 25 or 30 port USB hub up in the new Slashdot Deals section
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
Come on, now... What else could that possibly mean?
CAD tool vendors liked dongles back in the days that PCs has parallel ports. OrCad for instance.
It didn't take long before customers started telling them to quit with the dongles or they would shop elsewhere. And so the rise of FlexLM and spoofed MAC addresses.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Ummmm... why'd you want straight lines, with these you wouldn't know what to do with the dongle again...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Slashcode dropped my sarcasm tags.....
There is an implied eye rolling in the above post.
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
Oh great. Just to use software I should buy something that's expensive as fuck and uses more power than the rest of the rig?
Seriously, if that became the norm, I'd break out the disasm again. Not to spread the software, just to use what I fucking PAID FOR! Don't piss off your paying customer, go after the illegal copier instead, dammit!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
When you activate by phone the IVR states:
"Note: Microsoft Product Activation is completely anonymous; therefore, no personal information is collected. The entire activation process will take about 5 minutes."
They do not just mostly ignore individual pirites, they do the same for groups and put 0 effort into locking down their software. Since the very beginning attracting pirates to windows and office has been a major unspoken marketing ploy. No idea if it changed recently, but for many versions the method to crack office was to change a registry key from false to true. And windows hardly even punishes users of unregistered versions of windows.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
I remember those dongles. Easy to break, messed with the printers far too many times, easy to crack... in general it proved to be more a nuisance to the legit customer than anyone trying to rip the software for free.
And hence again my plea: Do NOT piss off your paying customer in your quest to stop copying. If anything, it makes people pissed enough to make them stop buying and start copying. Because it usually means that it's EASIER to use the copied and cracked software.
It really boggles the mind.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
But where the hell do you think I should plug in a few dozen dongles?
Joystick port on a Commodore 64. I had a piece of software from -- OMG! 30 years ago! -- that required a dongle to be plugged into the 9-pin joystick port. The modern day version would be a special USB stick. You can get a USB hub if you need more places to stick your dongles in.
Slashcode isn't at fault this time. However, you evidently failed to use the HTML entities for angle brackets.
"These keys were likely stolen from Microsoft’s supply chain, used without permission from the refurbisher channel, and used more often than the license permits"
Sounds like techs recycling OEM Win7 Pro keys from systems that are imaged with Win7 Enterprise as soon as they clear the door. If this is the case I'd call it some productive use of the Microsoft tax vs piracy.
No need for a USB port. I have a wife for that sort of thing.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
“As part of its cyberforensic methods, Microsoft analyzes product key activation data voluntarily provided by users when they activate Microsoft software, including the IP address from which a given product key is activated”
...
In other words, Microsoft Windows is bugged and phones home
But where the hell do you think I should plug in a few dozen dongles?
If they're built right, you daisy chain them. Back in the Good Old Days before USB, dongles were plugged into the printer port and each one had another parallel port on the back. That way, you could have as many dongles as you needed plugged in, and still use your printer. No reason you couldn't do that today, including having the last item in the chain being your USB printer.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Through the Business Software Alliance (BSA) Microsoft has sued many schools for having "unlicensed" copies. Most of the time the schools are forced to settle and that comes with a gag-order, so there are far fewer reported cases (and the reason I'm posting AC right now) than there actually are. Most of the time this is for software that was installed on computers that were donated to schools or just bulk licenses where someone didn't keep track of the install base and ghosted a few new machines.
Two cases I know of:
1. A charter school that had to pay $20k+. One of the school board parents was a lawyer and he straight up said to go for the settlement.
2. A private high school I personally work with that had to pay over $80k for installing a new computer lab and using an existing image with a bulk license on all the machines + "expired" database license.
So yeah. Microsoft sues schools. Somehow that makes Bill Gates's drive to eliminate Malaria seem like a PR diversion tactic to me.
"You we using govment names now? Aight I see how it is. Here we come muthaf*ckas."
This is straight off the Privacy Statement for the Microsoft® Customer Experience Improvement Program (http://www.microsoft.com/products/ceip/en-US/privacypolicy.mspx)...
Internet-enabled features in software will send information about your computer (standard computer information) to the websites you visit and web services you use. This information is generally not personally identifiable. Standard computer information typically includes certain information about your computer software and hardware, such as your IP address, operating system version, web browser version, your hardware ID (which indicates the device manufacturer, device name, and version), and your regional and language settings. Although when each CEIP report is sent to Microsoft, standard computer information is sent as well, Microsoft does not store your IP address with your CEIP reports.
This is right of of the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program page (http://www.microsoft.com/products/ceip/en-US/default.mspx)...
How does Microsoft protect my privacy if I choose to participate?
CEIP reports do not contain contact information, such as your name, address, or phone number. CEIP generates a globally unique identifier (GUID) that is stored on your computer to uniquely identify it. The GUID is a randomly generated number; it does not contain any personal information and is not used to identify you. CEIP uses the GUID to distinguish how widespread the feedback we receive is and how to prioritize it. For example, the GUID allows Microsoft to distinguish between one customer experiencing a problem one hundred times and other customers experiencing the same problem once. The GUID is stored on your computer and sent with every CEIP report. Some reports might unintentionally contain individual identifiers, such as a serial number for a device that is connected to your computer. Microsoft filters the information contained in CEIP reports to try to remove any individual identifiers that they might contain. To the extent that individual identifiers are received, Microsoft does not use them to identify you or contact you. More details are provided in the Customer Experience Improvement Program Privacy Statement.
I do believe that a law suit counts as contact. It's interesting that in one block they say they don't store your IP and on another page they say that the CEIP info will not be used to identify or contact you... "Microsoft does not use them to identify you or contact you".
I don't support piracy for profit but I do understand that it is a part of any economic system and in many ways is free advertising for the company. Unless this company or person pirated their products tens of thousands of times, this seems like a wasted effort, especially considering their own privacy statements.
Regardless, I'm glad I turn off CEIP on all the machines I build. I personally just don't like being spied on. What a person does in the privacy of of their own home or business should remain private unless they want to share. No one should be spied on for purposes or improving a product. In fact, if you want to spy on people, you should compensate them for violating their right to privacy. Make no mistake, most of my customer's don't even know this feature exists nor that it is active by default. I guess in many ways Microsoft benefited from the very acts of piracy they are now pursuing since the pirates didn't turn disable the CEIP program, so was anyone really deprived of payment here?
---Privacy is a right, not a privilege.---
+1 This. And also let's not forget to RTFA.
"According to the complaint, the defendant(s) in this case have activated numerous copies of Windows 7 and Office 2010 with suspicious keys. These keys were likely stolen from MicrosoftÃ(TM)s supply chain, used without permission from the refurbisher channel, and used more often than the license permits."
Runs much deeper than a Daz Loader.
As my father used to tell me: "A wife is an attachment you screw on the bed to get the housework done."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
As I understand it, the BSA is largely owned, and controlled by MS.
In deference to the article's claim that "Despite being one of the most pirated software vendors in the world, Microsoft doesn't have a long track record of cracking down on individual pirates."
MS has a very long record of such lawsuits, MS just does not file the lawsuits directly.
Actually, there' something called "moral rights" in copyright law that allows the copyright holder to prevent you from, for example, buying an art book with a bunch of nice pictures in it, cutting out and framing all the pictures, and reselling the framed pictures.
I doubt that very much. Show me a case which broadly prohibits that - not some narrower interpretation tenuously connected. I don't care if the book publisher gets in trouble if I cut up the book, I signed no such agreement when I bought it off the discount rack at B&N.
No, you probably didn't, but it's a copyright law, not a contract. You are obligated to obey the law even if you didn't agree to it.
As to show you a case, the Ninth Circuit has held for Parent in a related fact-pattern, while the seventh circuit has sided more with you, so it depends where in the United States you are. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
In addition, the parent was talking about moral rights, which are more of a European thing. So you'd have to check their law.
until one gets fidgity and you are plugging in and removing dongles all day, or just downloading a patch from cracks.am
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
I remember ads for dongle emulators in the seedy advertising market place in the back of the magazine. Whats funny is how lazy software developers are when it comes to implementing the protection....
USB dongles are a lot more transparent and can be chained all over the machine using hubs.
We also had 4 AVID workstation running off of one dongle at Comcast back then. a printer switch was all we needed. going to load or render? flip the switch to your machine as that is the only times it checked for the dongle.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Windows O/S's at least always phone home first (use TCPview to watch http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897437 )
I've been well aware my pirated windows were being detected. Win7 was my first valid O/S and I've run em all but ME and up to W2K in the server line.
Thought it rather nice of em in a way, never crippled an O/S in any way, no nastygrams, or complaints.
Now with Win7 it might take me 30 mins to validate the damn thing, the code is too bloody small (with bad eye sight it requires me a magnifying glass or two) "Code no good", and try again with changes like a o for Q, a X for a K; I've installed it many times and always the same thing, and yes I have it written on the case three different ways.
Pirated is instant :} - So much easier and temper free.
Seriously, the Microsoft Toolkit KMS Server Service activator has been around for at least 5 years now, and activates windows locally with no issues, and more importantly, no connection to the outside world.
What moron uses Microsoft's servers to activate pirated copies of Windows?
What pisses me of is the use of the word "pirate" to describe someone who is infringing copyright. Piracy involves robbery, kidnapping, and murder on the high seas!
Stop letting Microsoft frame the debate!
Individual is the key word there. The BSA (and thus I agree by extension Microsoft) has a well documented track record of suing companies using pirated software. If you take them at their word that there were a large number of different devices activating those products from that IP address it seems reasonable that the same is exactly what's happening here. Individual pirates would be like the RIAA and MPAA going after actual people and families.
Or that IP is an exit point for Tor or a VPN or whatever and whoever's actually doing it is somewhere else, who can say.
I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
My parents bought a branded machine at a big box store and within weeks it popped up and said that the software wasn't genuine. So I ran the software to make it appear genuine and moved on. There was a zero percent chance that I was going to deal with either the branded company's or the big box company's tech support. Zero.
And these companies wonder why we are switching so much of our buying to online. When their tech support people begin by doing a market survey and end with a sales pitch or a bill then nope.
I do not know any cases (not saying they don't exist) where BSA would have targeted individuals. In every instance the targeted entity was a business.
We had a device that went in the back of the C64, and had a new connector at the other end. So multiple cartridges (or dongles) could be installed.
It's okay, MS software is so bloated you couldn't possible run dozens of apps at once.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Key management for windows (ie: The server software that large corporations run to hand out licenses to their windows desktops and servers--also hands out licenses for other MS products) was cracked a while ago. There's implementations written in several portable languages floating about that can be run on just about any OS. When these servers are run, they'll activate most any volume license products (not all, because not every single key was cracked) for 6 months.
I expect the dumbass at that IP decided it would be fun to run a public cracked KMS and then proceeded to tell the world about it. Lazy/dumb pirates decided "Hey, why bother running my own, let's just use that one!" and thousands of activations ensued. At some point MS realizes it's getting a little too easy to pirate their product and it might just be harming sales. Shut down a few of those dumb-asses and they'll be back down to the only pirates being those that would never have purchased in the first place (that's the "sweet spot" for piracy--doesn't negatively affect sales, but provides a hidden boost to popularity).
You're scum Microsoft, you are big dumb greedy bully that craps on users. Take your precious UEFI and please store it where the sun does not shine. When your insultingly pathetic excuse for an OS can read EXT drives then I might speak your name in polite company. I will go to prison before I will allow your crappy software on my computer. You are a dinosaur, a relic. Lilnux is kicking your ass and all you can do is cry for the fascist piggies to protect you. Move to Venezuela you asshats. We don't want you here!!!
6.40 ports ought to be enough for anybody (TM)
Seriously, how many people use 25 paid for applications all in one PC?
...worldwide, will just precede the Year of the Linux desktop.