Microsoft's obsession with piracy threatens Windows 10 licensing mess

[Borg 386]

Microsoft's obsession with piracy threatens to create a Windows 10 licensing mess

Microsoft wants everyone to run Windows 10.

They're so determined to make a clean break with the past, in fact, that they've made an unprecedented offer of free Windows 10 upgrades for anyone running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. That's a huge user base, representing hundreds of millions and perhaps more than 1 billion PCs worldwide.

This is a very big deal. For the first time ever, a major Windows version upgrade will arrive via Windows Update, with no payment required and no hoops to jump through.

They doubled down on that deal last week with news that the upgrade would be available even on PCs running "non-genuine" (pirated) copies of Windows.

Now, though, the company appears to be backing down from that initial, apparently too-good-to-be-true offer.

It's yet another round of disappointment in the continuing saga of Microsoft licensing. Every time it looks like the company is about to do something to make Windows licensing more sensible and less onerous, someone (usually in the legal department) gets cold feet.

Microsoft's obsession with piracy threatens to create a Windows 10 licensing mess | ZDNet

 

[logicearth]

Right because those that stole it should be given the same reward for those that paid for it. Someone smack that author with an idiot stick.

 

[andrew129260]

Right because those that stole it should be given the same reward for those that paid for it. Someone smack that author with an idiot stick.

Tell that to Microsoft, because that is what they are doing.

How is he an idiot? Did you even read the article?

I think this sums it up perfectly at the end:

If Microsoft is serious about moving to a business model where Windows versions don't matter and the bulk of its revenue comes from services like Skype and Office 365 and Azure, why this last desperate bit of clinging to an outmoded business model?

If windows is a service now, which is what they are making it, why are they sticking to this old model? What does it matter if people did not pay for it before if the new version is free?

 

[ThrashZone]

Yea I just believe it's a bad message to be sending out.
Rewarding pirateware is well disenfranchising legitimate players but what ever Microsoft does the os will be what it is good or bad/ accepted or rejected,
Users usually dictate those results.

 

[aakshat]

Well i dont know much about this. But what if theres a catch in this. What if you can upgrade even from a pirated version but would not able to use it(to its fullest) without a genuine licence.