Chinese Windows Users Accuse Microsoft Of Hacking Their Computers

from the a-successful-antipiracy-day,-huh? dept

Part of Microsoft's big antipiracy day festivities was to talk about how it was ramping up efforts to crack down on unauthorized copies of its software in China (again, despite the fact that unauthorized copies in China are part of what helped establish Microsoft software as the de facto standard there). The efforts in China include more use of what Microsoft likes to call "Windows Genuine Advantage" -- which is really a DRM system known mostly for falsely accusing legitimate buyers of being pirates. Approximately half a million legitimate buyers were accused of piracy, leading many to suggest that WGA is quite similar to a rootkit, making your computer not function properly, all in the name of stopping piracy.

Over in China, it appears that they're not at all happy about WGA. Last year, a student there sued Microsoft for privacy violations in sending info back to Redmond via WGA, and in response to Microsoft's "get tough on piracy" campaign, apparently a bunch of folks in China are publicly denouncing WGA as being an illegal intrusion on their computers. They're accusing the company of trying to control computers without permission and of "hacking" their systems. Microsoft's response, of course, would be that legitimate buyers have nothing to worry about -- even though that doesn't quite seem to be the case. Still, it's difficult to feel all that sympathetic for the complainers -- as they should have known what they were getting with Windows. If they don't like it, there are other options on the market.

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Apple Seeks To Patent 'Anti-Piracy' Technology. Will Steve Jobs Be Dumb Enough To Use It?

from the counterproductive dept

PCWorld alerts us to an application filed by Apple for a patent titled "Run-time code injection to perform checks." In a nutshell, it covers an operating system periodically checking running applications to determine whether they're pirated, and shutting them down if they are. Now, it should be kept in mind that the fact that Apple has filed a patent application doesn't prove that it will be used (or that it will be granted). To the contrary, companies routinely patent ideas they never intend to implement just so they will have more ammunition in future patent battles. As Microsoft discovered, systems like the one described in the patent inevitably produce false positives, and disabling a paying customer's copy of your product is much worse than allowing a non-paying customer to use it. Moreover, such tools do little to stop piracy, because inevitably someone finds a way to get around them, and news of the workaround quickly spreads around the Internet. So as a result, these kinds of "anti-piracy" programs mostly serve to annoy paying customers, who have to endure slower system performance and periodic "piracy checks" to verify that, yes, they're still paying customers. Thus far, Apple has differentiated itself from Redmond by declining to incorporate significant copy protection in its operating systems. That's given them a key marketing advantage, and I rather doubt Jobs would want to throw that advantage away in a futile attempt to stop piracy.

Timothy Lee is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Timothy Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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If Microsoft's WGA Is So Successful... Why Change It So Completely?

from the not-quite-so-successful,-huh? dept

Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage program has been nothing if not controversial. The anti-piracy system tries to determine if you're using an unauthorized version of Windows, which it will then disable. That works great for Microsoft if it's actually catching unauthorized copies -- but the problem is that it was catching an awful lot of legitimate users at the same time, causing plenty of damage in the process. However, Microsoft has continued to stand by WGA, and just last week the Associated Press ran an article highlighting what a huge success WGA has been, not only in slowing piracy, but in encouraging others that similar means could be useful in slowing piracy elsewhere.

Perhaps that article was a bit premature. The Associated Press is now running a new article about some fairly significant changes that Microsoft is making to WGA, including that it will no longer disable copies of Windows that do not pass the WGA test. Instead, it will just make those copies annoying, by making the wallpaper black and putting a white notice on the screen alerting the user to the fact that his or her copy is unauthorized. Every time the user logs in and once an hour a reminder will pop up, asking the user to buy a legitimate copy. However, it will continue to work. And, if a user does decide to buy a legit copy, he or she will get a 50% discount... meaning that if you want to buy a legit copy, you're now better off pirating a version and then buying a legit replacement. So, for all that talk of how successful WGA has been, it appears that the collateral damage of effectively bricking many computers simply wasn't worth it. Those rushing to implement similar solutions to WGA after last week's article may want to think again.

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