Does it tag.wav files? If so, and the program says they're infringing files, which leads someone to delete them, Windows might not be too happy about that...
"Suprnova was just as closed source. They didn't release any of their (PHP) source. Nobody complained."
Probably because suprnova was a web page and as such isn't going to be running code on my machine with access to all my files (on windows at least, well in admin user anyway) and has a far less potential to infect my machine with spyware (I use firefox, which although may not be completely secure in practice, I trust it more than a piece of software which includes advertisements from a known spyware company).
Yup, says here that they use Cydoor, and a quick google pretty much confirms that it's spyware, or that company uses spyware at least, and hence shouldn't be trusted.
It didn't ask me for my serial number, at least on the validation system I used on the MS page anyway. In IE it used an activeX control to check the key (iirc).
In Firefox you download a program which generates a 5 char piece of text (you just run the program and it pops up the text, don't need to enter anything, although zonealarm popped up and told me it was trying to contact MS - if you prevent it from doing so it doesn't generate the text), which you then copy + paste into the text box shown on the MS home page, which is then validated.
"If you tattle you both get in trouble. You might get in more trouble than they will."
Not if they infect something which is public domain (didn't some of Elvis' music just become public domain in the uk?) in another country and hence legal to download, but illegal to run unauthorised software on someone else's computer (like in the UK under the computer misuse act ?).
Probably not, as pirating an online play only game isn't exactly going to be that popular (I assume Blizzard uses a white-list of keys, like Mythic do with DAoC).
He didn't say he wants help with his pirate key, he just said that their license detection system works better now.
Anyway, if MS did use a whitelist of keys, a lot of unused keys exist which wouldn't be difficult to obtain - for example at the college I attend, in the IT building alone there's at least 200 Dell machines running Windows 2000, all with official XP key stickers stuck to them which are for the most part unused.
I wouldn't get "MS Windows XP SP 2 And Office KeyGen.exe" from P2P, or Kazaa at least - I know that quite a few worms propagate by renaming themselves to "$NAME_OF_SOFTWARE Keygen.exe" and inserting themselves into Shared Folders of P2P software.
Well, that and it no longer runs on Windows 98 or ME (I am under the impression that GIANT Antispyware did), probably because MS no longer officially supports either of them.
A peer is just a device on a network, correct? Then wouldn't a web server be one peer, and the user's computer be another, and the relationship between them would be *gasp* Peer to Peer?
Does anybody know how aggressive this legislation is? The wikipedia article seems to give me the impression that if it can be used for copyright infringement (the CD ripping program is the given example), it would be illegal to create.
"I heard people trade music warez on MSN messanger, Microsoft are in trouble!"
Even before Firefox 1.0PR was released, some "less repuatable" sites started requesting you to install their extension (probably spyware, don't want to download it to check heh), so FireFox has already been targetted, although soon after this happened, the whitelist for extension installing was implemented.
Heh, talking about anti-piracy advertisements, I saw an advertisement being shown during a news clip from the BBC (was part of the news clip- the BBC don't have advertisements, and I don't know if it was an advert from the US, or one shown in the UK or not although I have never seen it over here) that basically said "Would you steal a car?" "Then don't steal music" or something along those lines.
Maybe we should do a mock up - "Would you burn down a house?" "Then don't infect people with malware!".
For video files, WMP pops up a box saying "this file is incorrectly named as another filetype do you want to open" [yes] [no] and a check box to remember the setting, or similer. Not sure about audio, but I assume it does the same though.
Yes, that's possible (hell, it happened to me yesterday with a questionairre thing from Nokia, itsaid to "upgrade" to IE6 or Netscape, but changing the UserAgent fixed that), but a lot of corp "web-based" stuff is ActiveX and changing the UserAgent won't help that, although there was an ActiveX extension for Firefox, I think it's dead now as it says on the site it doesn't support Firefox 0.9 or 1.0.
"Q: What benefits are available under the settlement?
A: You will receive vouchers redeemable for cash after the purchase of a wide variety of software and computer hardware products. The vouchers are worth: $16 for each Microsoft Windows or MS-DOS license claimed; $29 for each Microsoft Office license claimed; $5 for each Microsoft Word, Home Essentials or Works Suite license claimed; and $26 for each Microsoft Excel license claimed.
Q: What can the vouchers be used for?
A: You can exchange your vouchers for cash by submitting proof of purchases you made after July 18, 2003 of the following computer products: Any desktop, laptop, or tablet computer made by any manufacturer for any operating system platform, or any of the following devices: printers, scanners, monitors, keyboards, or pointing devices (e.g. mouse, trackball). Qualifying software includes any non-custom software offered by any software vendor for use on a desktop, laptop or tablet computer. The qualifying computer hardware or software does not have to be a Microsoft product. After you submit proof of purchase to the Claims Administrator (either with your claim form or your voucher) a check will be sent to you for the amount of your purchase. The Claims Administrator will keep track of any remaining value on the voucher for your use in making future purchases. The claim form instructions and the voucher will explain the redemption procedure in more detail. "
Slashdot Mirror
Does it tag .wav files? If so, and the program says they're infringing files, which leads someone to delete them, Windows might not be too happy about that...
"Suprnova was just as closed source. They didn't release any of their (PHP) source. Nobody complained."
Probably because suprnova was a web page and as such isn't going to be running code on my machine with access to all my files (on windows at least, well in admin user anyway) and has a far less potential to infect my machine with spyware (I use firefox, which although may not be completely secure in practice, I trust it more than a piece of software which includes advertisements from a known spyware company).
Yup, says here that they use Cydoor, and a quick google pretty much confirms that it's spyware, or that company uses spyware at least, and hence shouldn't be trusted.
Is this software good enough to notice the difference between a movie and 120k of source code?
It didn't ask me for my serial number, at least on the validation system I used on the MS page anyway. In IE it used an activeX control to check the key (iirc).
In Firefox you download a program which generates a 5 char piece of text (you just run the program and it pops up the text, don't need to enter anything, although zonealarm popped up and told me it was trying to contact MS - if you prevent it from doing so it doesn't generate the text), which you then copy + paste into the text box shown on the MS home page, which is then validated.
Yeah, like this story here that doesn't exist, for instance... oh wait.
"If you tattle you both get in trouble. You might get in more trouble than they will."
Not if they infect something which is public domain (didn't some of Elvis' music just become public domain in the uk?) in another country and hence legal to download, but illegal to run unauthorised software on someone else's computer (like in the UK under the computer misuse act ?).
Crackers like the RIAA/MPAA contractor Overpeer?
Well he mentioned newsgroups (nntp) so I assumed he meant pirating.
Probably not, as pirating an online play only game isn't exactly going to be that popular (I assume Blizzard uses a white-list of keys, like Mythic do with DAoC).
Well, either that or slashdot 'em.
He didn't say he wants help with his pirate key, he just said that their license detection system works better now.
Anyway, if MS did use a whitelist of keys, a lot of unused keys exist which wouldn't be difficult to obtain - for example at the college I attend, in the IT building alone there's at least 200 Dell machines running Windows 2000, all with official XP key stickers stuck to them which are for the most part unused.
I wouldn't get "MS Windows XP SP 2 And Office KeyGen.exe" from P2P, or Kazaa at least - I know that quite a few worms propagate by renaming themselves to "$NAME_OF_SOFTWARE Keygen.exe" and inserting themselves into Shared Folders of P2P software.
Well, that and it no longer runs on Windows 98 or ME (I am under the impression that GIANT Antispyware did), probably because MS no longer officially supports either of them.
A peer is just a device on a network, correct? Then wouldn't a web server be one peer, and the user's computer be another, and the relationship between them would be *gasp* Peer to Peer?
Does anybody know how aggressive this legislation is? The wikipedia article seems to give me the impression that if it can be used for copyright infringement (the CD ripping program is the given example), it would be illegal to create.
"I heard people trade music warez on MSN messanger, Microsoft are in trouble!"
Installed fine here on Windows XP SP2, with Firefox set as default browser, and Thunderbird as default mail client.
Just the software industry is fine, I like my MS mouse.
Even before Firefox 1.0PR was released, some "less repuatable" sites started requesting you to install their extension (probably spyware, don't want to download it to check heh), so FireFox has already been targetted, although soon after this happened, the whitelist for extension installing was implemented.
"Kind of like the burglar who complains that the homeowner shot him."
Funny you should say that. Ok granted Tony Martain killed the burgular, but still. Oh, and the Computer Misuse act was quoted by someone else here.
I remember seeing a few times that it's legal to download, but not upload in Canada.
Heh, talking about anti-piracy advertisements, I saw an advertisement being shown during a news clip from the BBC (was part of the news clip- the BBC don't have advertisements, and I don't know if it was an advert from the US, or one shown in the UK or not although I have never seen it over here) that basically said "Would you steal a car?" "Then don't steal music" or something along those lines.
Maybe we should do a mock up - "Would you burn down a house?" "Then don't infect people with malware!".
For video files, WMP pops up a box saying "this file is incorrectly named as another filetype do you want to open" [yes] [no] and a check box to remember the setting, or similer. Not sure about audio, but I assume it does the same though.
Yes, that's possible (hell, it happened to me yesterday with a questionairre thing from Nokia, itsaid to "upgrade" to IE6 or Netscape, but changing the UserAgent fixed that), but a lot of corp "web-based" stuff is ActiveX and changing the UserAgent won't help that, although there was an ActiveX extension for Firefox, I think it's dead now as it says on the site it doesn't support Firefox 0.9 or 1.0.
That's obviously the digital signature!
From the FAQ on microsoftcalsettlement.com:
"Q: What benefits are available under the settlement?
A: You will receive vouchers redeemable for cash after the purchase of a wide variety of software and computer hardware products. The vouchers are worth: $16 for each Microsoft Windows or MS-DOS license claimed; $29 for each Microsoft Office license claimed; $5 for each Microsoft Word, Home Essentials or Works Suite license claimed; and $26 for each Microsoft Excel license claimed.
Q: What can the vouchers be used for?
A: You can exchange your vouchers for cash by submitting proof of purchases you made after July 18, 2003 of the following computer products: Any desktop, laptop, or tablet computer made by any manufacturer for any operating system platform, or any of the following devices: printers, scanners, monitors, keyboards, or pointing devices (e.g. mouse, trackball). Qualifying software includes any non-custom software offered by any software vendor for use on a desktop, laptop or tablet computer. The qualifying computer hardware or software does not have to be a Microsoft product. After you submit proof of purchase to the Claims Administrator (either with your claim form or your voucher) a check will be sent to you for the amount of your purchase. The Claims Administrator will keep track of any remaining value on the voucher for your use in making future purchases. The claim form instructions and the voucher will explain the redemption procedure in more detail. "