MS Kills Office Anti-Piracy Program

[MacGyvr]

Microsoft last week killed an anti-piracy service that checked whether customers were running legal copies of Office, saying that the program had "served its purpose."

ZDNet blogger Ed Bott first reported on Microsoft's move after a tipster pointed him toward a support document on the company's site.

More...

Finally. Maybe they are coming around with not inconveniencing legit customers.

Or, they are developing something even more ridiculous.

It's a bit of a misnomer. The only thing they stopped using is "Office Genuine Validation" when downloading updates, etc. All other anti-piracy initiatives are still in place...keys, blacklisted keys, etc. It's not a free-for-all now.

 

[Klaw117]

Microsoft last week killed an anti-piracy service that checked whether customers were running legal copies of Office, saying that the program had "served its purpose."

ZDNet blogger Ed Bott first reported on Microsoft's move after a tipster pointed him toward a support document on the company's site.

More...

Finally. Maybe they are coming around with not inconveniencing legit customers.

Or, they are developing something even more ridiculous.

It's a bit of a misnomer. The only thing they stopped using is "Office Genuine Validation" when downloading updates, etc. All other anti-piracy initiatives are still in place...keys, blacklisted keys, etc. It's not a free-for-all now.

Still, it's a good thing that they got rid of this because it's one of the more annoying anti-piracy tricks that Microsoft uses. They even got sued over it a few times. It's really not necessary as long as they can blacklist keys that they suspect are being used by pirates.

 

[Lee]

There's this article showing that activation was somewhat easy to get around

Confessions of a Windows 7 pirate | ZDNet

But I also read that Office is going to be more of a cloud thing in the future. And this was somewhat prompted by Open Office. I have it and it does just about everything Office does except Access. And it's free

Thank you for that little bit of comic relief. :roflmao:

It is always good to have a good laugh.

Welcome back jfar. . .:grouphug:

 

[Robearl2x]

Microsoft last week killed an anti-piracy service that checked whether customers were running legal copies of Office, saying that the program had "served its purpose."

ZDNet blogger Ed Bott first reported on Microsoft's move after a tipster pointed him toward a support document on the company's site.

More...

Finally. Maybe they are coming around with not inconveniencing legit customers.

Or, they are developing something even more ridiculous.

It's a bit of a misnomer. The only thing they stopped using is "Office Genuine Validation" when downloading updates, etc. All other anti-piracy initiatives are still in place...keys, blacklisted keys, etc. It's not a free-for-all now.

Dito

 

[MacGyvr]

More...

Finally. Maybe they are coming around with not inconveniencing legit customers.

Or, they are developing something even more ridiculous.

It's a bit of a misnomer. The only thing they stopped using is "Office Genuine Validation" when downloading updates, etc. All other anti-piracy initiatives are still in place...keys, blacklisted keys, etc. It's not a free-for-all now.

Still, it's a good thing that they got rid of this because it's one of the more annoying anti-piracy tricks that Microsoft uses. They even got sued over it a few times. It's really not necessary as long as they can blacklist keys that they suspect are being used by pirates.

It was only annoying for those trying to use the software illegally.

 

[Robert Cartman]

Genuine Microsoft Software

No validation for windows anymore?

Soory it is only moved to here: http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/validate/

 

[nailgunner]

Genuine Microsoft Software

No validation for windows anymore?

Soory it is only moved to here: Genuine Microsoft Software

I'm not 100% sure, but wayyyy back on page one, the original posting was about them validating Office. There was a general discussion about the pros and cons on the usefulness of validation as a whole, but I'm not sure anyone suggested they are doing away with Windows Validation.

 

[Lee]

Robert Cartman, nice fine. Makes one wonder if people actually do download these validations.

 

[IownAmoneyPit]

Robert Cartman, nice fine. Makes one wonder if people actually do download these validations.

Yes we do