Text 19143, 73 rader
Skriven 2006-06-30 22:21:50 av Ross Cassell (1:123/456)
  Kommentar till text 19140 av MARTIN ATKINS (1:123/140)
Ärende: WGA
===========
Hello MARTIN!

01 Jul 06 08:18, you wrote to me:

 RC>> All 3 of my boxes have a legal copy of Windows on them, I have
 RC>> nothing to fear.

 RC>> So I cannot nor will not blame Microsoft or any other software
 RC>> vendor from doing what they can to curb the piracy of their
 RC>> products.

 MA> Few of them have come up with so many total lemons as Microsoft.

Fewer of them put out entire operating systems.

 RC>> Unless /YOU/ have a better idea, how about placing a little blame
 RC>> on the pirates for companies like MS having to do stuff like
 RC>> this?

 MA> They don't have to do stuff like this. What's wromg with User Name
 MA> Password and Product key. You are only logging into it's server and
 MA> picking up any security patches due to ligitamate users. Microsoft


Logon name and passwords can be shared or even stolen.

 MA> are just to lazy to take care of their own data base. Granted
 MA> authenication before being allowed on the server is sometimes
 MA> labour intensive. Fending of questions like "I've lost my product
 MA> key" or "I've lost my password" can take security all day to hunt
 MA> the user down and beat him to death.

The main issue has been pirated keys and abused OEM and corporate keys.

 MA> Only a company that is or thinks it is a monopaly would treat it's
 MA> users as thieves. What they are trying to do is dictate what hardware
 MA> changes you can make before your key is cancelled. For some reason
 MA> Microsoft feels the need to check your hardware on i presume a regular
 MA> basis. This means they are looking for a way of shutting you down if
 MA> the last hardware map doesn't match the next hardware map.

Product activation is not a M$ monopoly I assure you and is not a original M$
thought. How does one enforce their licensing by making sure a product can only
be installed on the number of machines the license allows? Prior to XP, people
could take a single copy of Any version of DOS and all prior versions of
Windows and install it on an unlimited number of machines. Since Microsoft
among many companies cannot exist solely on freeware revenues or those
generated by GNU/Open source software (oops there is none of that) they
stipulate that their programs are licensed for so many computers, 1 to
whatever.

People violate this all the time I know, pirates make it much worse.

I have had to reactivate Windows XP before, the big clue was the replacement
motherboard and cpu. From the WPA schemes viewpoint, it was running on a new
machine,, Reactivation was painless, then 2 weeks later, that new setup wasnt
stable enough so I had to replace the same hardware again, had to reacivate,
this time over the phone, no biggie, I understood why albeit inconvenient at
the time.


I am not pleased with WGA but I certainly understand the reasons why and it has
nothing to do with the conspiracy theories you cite.


==
Ross
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--- GoldED+/W32 1.1.5-30413
 * Origin: The Eastern Star - Spartanburg, SC USA (1:123/456)