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Single Verizon IP Address Used For Hundreds of Windows 7 Activations
An anonymous reader writes with this story from TorrentFreak: A presumed pirate with an unusually large appetite for activating Windows 7 has incurred the wrath of Microsoft. In a lawsuit filed [in] a Washington court, Microsoft said that it logged hundreds of suspicious product activations from a single Verizon IP address and is now seeking damages. ... Who he, she or they are behind address 74.111.202.30 is unknown at this point, but according to Microsoft they're responsible for some serious Windows pirating. "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," the lawsuit reads. The company says that its forensic tools allow the company to analyze billions of activations of software and identify patterns "that make it more likely than not" that an IP address associated with activations is one through which pirated software is being activated.
This great piece of history still rings true today:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists#/media/File:Bill_Gates_Letter_to_Hobbyists.jpg
Many here should read, learn, and abide...
Last time I installed OEM windows using the correct OEM discs (Windows 7), I was not prompted for registration codes of any kind. I installed multiple computers across two or three models from one manufacturer with the same DVD and on checking what keys were used for activation they were all unique. I don't know if the installer somehow determined a preset key based on a unique identifier associated with the computer itself, or if the OEM sysprep process on the disc determined that the computer was from that manufacturer and generated a somewhat random key based on the legitimacy of the platform, but they all worked fine.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
My employer up until sixteen months ago did exactly that. Volume licensing would have saved them some money - not a whole lot of money, but some. But, the IT department was totally incompetent. Now that we've been bought out by a larger company, the IT department is far less incompetent, and we actually have machines that work, OS's that do what they are supposed to do, and something that passes for security. And, volume licensing.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
No one thought to sanity-check the huge mirror that Perkin-Elmer designed for the single most expensive and ambitious astronomy project that the world had ever seen, even though two secondary instruments disagreed with the 'correct' measurements that the primary calibration tool reported. Consequently it cost a billion and a half dollars, several years, and required a daring in-orbit repair of components never meant to be space-serviced in order to get the instrument working properly.
In 2003, a NOAA weather satellite being manufactured fell off of its assembly tilting table because no one followed the directions to verify that the table's bolts were installed. The damage cost $135 million to correct.
Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because no one bothered to rectify that one team used fractional units and another team used SI units, so raw data in one unit was assumed to be in another unit, causing the problem that led to being steered incorrectly and hitting the planet.
I never underestimate the ability for people to overlook the most basic things. If massive high-profile projects can be screwed up this easily, then a few people working a relatively unimportant thing like this could easily overlook things.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Why would you think that?
I think the monoculture MS created in the late 80's to early 00's was a net gain for IT in general because the standardisation of Wintel as a PC platform allowed less nerdy types to get involved and help grow the pie. You can hate on all the bad things MS did, but the fact is having a standard platform during it's infancy was good for IT, just like how the Model T jump started the auto industry. We are now entering a post MS era so can lose the hate, and focus on Apple, Google, Facebook, Tesla etc, but the fact remains, any new industry has a critical growth phase, and the likes of MS and Cisco helped make that happen.
> If it wasn't for Microsoft, we would still be on mainframes and mini-computers. Paying jacked up prices. For crap, frankly.
Nonsense. Apple demonstrated, at a similar time, that personal computing was affordable. Bill Gates and Microsoft successfully assembled the business suite that helped drive PC sales, but there were other designs and even operating systems evolving that were compete.
Also note, Microsoft did not "create" the 64-bit core of Windows NT and Windows XP. They lifted a great deal of it, wholesale, from VMS with the help of Dave Cutler when they hired him and his development away from DEC. The lawsuits over this were fascinating, but please give credit where credit is due.
"GEM ... was pig awful, but better then Windows at the time."
GEM worked. It ran Ventura Publisher. I had investigated previous typesetting platforms; they cost $1.4 million.
The 1st version of Windows was just a toy, a dishonest suggestion that Microsoft should get respect, in my opinion. The second version of Windows had problems with fonts.
Far later, Windows 98 had an unstable file system.
MIcrosoft makes more money if its products have flaws.
IBM was a perfect example of how MSFT's many early successes were based on the having the preceding phrase "And then the other guy did something REALLY fucking stupid" having been uttered.
Case in point IBM....OS/2 was a damned fine OS, ran rings around the DOS based versions of Windows, and could multitask like a champ even on a weak sauce 286....so what happened? IBM did not one but several REALLY fucking stupid things, 1.- When Intel refused to license the 386 for second sourcing IBM refused to buy it, instead sticking with the 286 (which they made) damned near until the Pentium was released. This meant the cloners were not only cheaper they were MUCH faster at a time where every MHZ counted, 2.- Those same cloners, which IBM absolutely had to have if they were gonna launch a mainstream OS? Well they tried to kill them by fucking them on the MCA bus (which caused the cloners to adopt the E-ISA bus which was literally an MCA slot turned backwards) and then if that wasn't enough? By the time of OS/2 V2, a time when the average cloner was paying less than $10 a copy for Windows in bulk? They demanded $200 a copy for OS/2! Needless to say it was treated as plague blankets by the OEMs so even when IBM offered it at steep discounts the OEMs didn't want it.
As for TFA? Its a small PC shop that has a repair guy that is either incompetent, getting a shitload of laptops without the restore discs (as some of the builders...cough Lenovo cough...rig theirs in such a way they won't even restore from the partition without a restore disc...that costs $30 to order) and just using some "Razr1911 Corporate Edition Keygen" or they are being forced by the owner. Don't think that is possible? I've actually gone on interviews and had PC shop owners want to know if I'm familiar with Windows Server and WSUS and when I'd state yes they'd tell me flat footed they wanted me to set up a server so every PC they sold would get updates NOT from WU but from them, one even saying "So we can use this disc" and whipping out the infamous Razr1911 XP Pro Corp disc.
So with that many hits? Its a shop, either a DIY refurbing PCs on the cheap or one of the reasons listed above. You'd think with MSFT wanting everybody to upgrade to Win 10 and this place using Win 7 (one of the 3 OSes that get upgraded) they'd STFU and be happy to have so many new installs ready for Win 10, I guess old habits die hard or some of the Ballmernator's buds are still working in that dept.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.