MS Kills Office Anti-Piracy Program

[Win7User512]

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.

 

[jfar]

Thanks for that information.

 

[Win7User512]

Thanks for that information.

Jfar! You're back! Good to see you again. How is the old west holding up?

 

[jfar]

Good to be back, Howdy Pardner.

 

[Darician]

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.

Maybe finally is Microsoft realizing that Genuine Advantage is Genuine Crap.

 

[Kit]

Maybe finally is Microsoft realizing that Genuine Advantage is Genuine Crap.

Couldn't have said it better myself, try as they might to get rid of the piracy all they do is just encourage it if you ask me. Then again I don't really think anyone liked the Genuine Advantage, especially people who are rather stringent on updates, but just think about it, you have an update, and it says its an important security update, which is downloaded and installed automatically, but then later you realize that the update in particular didn't provide any additional security at all, instead all it does is tell Microsoft whether or not the OS you use is "Genuine" or not, and then Microsoft pulls the plug on you, altering your computer's use until you buy a "Genuine" license, now this might be just me, or does this sound like those false antivirus programs that prevent your computer from running until you buy a licence for the fake antivirus, yeah sure one is a real product and the other is not, but the things that they do, IE: altering the computers usage, whether it be putting it to sleep every 2 hours, or even preventing it from starting at all. It just sounds..........i dunno wrong somehow to be messing up a users computer...........I mean seriously Bill Gates even said "If people are going to be stealing, I want them to steal from ME!"

 

[Fayla]

Other than being a headache for legit user(s) it has done little at all to stop people pirating the software.

 

[Kit]

Exactly, its pretty much like a product war, Microsoft tries to beef up security via things like this, and then the pirates just make new ways to get around the code.........and to be honest i would know as i USED to run a pirated version of XP Professional.

 

[LiquidSnak]

they are developing something even more ridiculous.

This. Being a member of the MSDN for quite a while now, I do believe that they will look for something way more preposterous.

Most of the pirated copies of Office I see are corporate editions, with valid keylists that have been leaked.

 

[WolfSoul]

Usually "security measures" become annoyances that encourage piracy

 

[TVeblen]

Or, they are developing something even more ridiculous.

Full body scanners.

 

[G1LLY]

Or, they are developing something even more ridiculous.

Full body scanners.

LoL!

 

[Trucidation]

Couldn't have said it better myself, try as they might to get rid of the piracy all they do is just encourage it if you ask me. Then again I don't really think anyone liked the Genuine Advantage, especially people who are rather stringent on updates, but just think about it, you have an update, and it says its an important security update, which is downloaded and installed automatically, but then later you realize that the update in particular didn't provide any additional security at all, instead all it does is tell Microsoft whether or not the OS you use is "Genuine" or not, and then Microsoft pulls the plug on you, altering your computer's use until you buy a "Genuine" license,

The only people I knew who had trouble with WGA and loved to bitch about it... were exactly the people who pirated their Windows. Actually, the smarter pirates weren't caught, but you can't completely stop piracy anyway and this did work to nail the small timers and the stupid.

Yes, I know there were plenty of shops which preinstalled warezed versions for the home user here in Southeast Asia (but you don't come from here do you?), but guess what - this initiative worked. A couple years back nearly any shop you walked into would sell you a lemon. You'd go home with your new box and run updates, and get screwed. Nowadays you can pretty much safely be assured you'll be getting a properly licensed installation.

The way I see it, it stopped shops from ripping home users off.

 

[Hikertrash]

Maybe finally is Microsoft realizing that Genuine Advantage is Genuine Crap.

Couldn't have said it better myself, try as they might to get rid of the piracy all they do is just encourage it if you ask me. Then again I don't really think anyone liked the Genuine Advantage, especially people who are rather stringent on updates, but just think about it, you have an update, and it says its an important security update, which is downloaded and installed automatically, but then later you realize that the update in particular didn't provide any additional security at all, instead all it does is tell Microsoft whether or not the OS you use is "Genuine" or not, and then Microsoft pulls the plug on you, altering your computer's use until you buy a "Genuine" license, now this might be just me, or does this sound like those false antivirus programs that prevent your computer from running until you buy a licence for the fake antivirus, yeah sure one is a real product and the other is not, but the things that they do, IE: altering the computers usage, whether it be putting it to sleep every 2 hours, or even preventing it from starting at all. It just sounds..........i dunno wrong somehow to be messing up a users computer...........I mean seriously Bill Gates even said "If people are going to be stealing, I want them to steal from ME!"

As far as I could tell there was one update that installed OGA, which was clearly labeled. Of course, if you didn't want to install it, you had to look for it.

 

[Golden]

The only people I knew who had trouble with WGA and loved to bitch about it... were exactly the people who pirated their Windows. Actually, the smarter pirates weren't caught, but you can't completely stop piracy anyway and this did work to nail the small timers and the stupid.

The way I see it, it stopped shops from ripping home users off.

Completely agree.

 

[Borg 386]

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

 

[jimbo45]

Thanks for that information.

Hi there
Welcome back to "The Land of the living"

Rumours had it that you were actually the Boss of Ryanair and have been busy lately .

Happy Xmas.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[cclloyd9785]

I wonder if they will ever realize that

1. With pirated programs, there is no less features than the "genuine advantage" one

and

2. They will never be able to stop piracy.

 

[jfar]

Thanks for that information.

Hi there
Welcome back to "The Land of the living"

Rumours had it that you were actually the Boss of Ryanair and have been busy lately .

Happy Xmas.

Cheers
jimbo

I should be so lucky.

 

[nailgunner]

I wonder if they will ever realize that

1. With pirated programs, there is no less features than the "genuine advantage" one

and

2. They will never be able to stop piracy.

They realize it now, but they have to at least try. The alternative is to produce one copy of an operating system or other software program, release it on the net, and let people have at it.

That sounds like a great business model for a multi-national company with over 80,000 employees and subsidiaries in over 100 countries.