The WGA mess (continued)
The Microsoft spyware that they call Windows Genuine Advantage (the advantage is to Microsoft, not the user) continues to cause problems. Go here for some more examples.
Note that I used the term “spyware” to describe the WGA tool. If you think that’s too strong, read Brian Livingston at Windows Secrets who says, “Genuine Advantage is Microsoft spyware”. He also says
In my May 25 newsletter, I called Microsoft’s WGA download a “severe blunder.” It causes serious problems for some legitimate Windows users and was sprung on customers with no notice other than a press release the day before.
No PC-using company that values security and reliability can allow a program like WGA to send data to a distant server, download additional software, morph its behavior, or remotely change the functionality of Windows (as I describe below). I don’t believe individuals should put up with this, either.
Livingston has also written this interesting observation
Let me emphasize that I’m dead set against the mass piracy of software or any other creative work. But Windows Genuine Advantage and Windows Product Activation, which WGA is meant to enforce, have nothing to do with stopping mass piracy.
As I reported in InfoWorld Magazine way back on Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, 2001, Microsoft deliberately designed Product Activation to be trivial for pirates to circumvent. Any fly-by-night business can copy a single file and sell thousands of machines that pass Product Activation (although the innocent buyers may have trouble validating months or years later).
The purpose of Product Activation has always been to prevent Mom and Dad from buying a Windows package, installing one copy on the parents’ PC and another on the kid’s PC. Frankly, copyright laws for hundreds of years have allowed buyers of copyrighted works to make a limited number of copies exclusively for themselves. If you bought an music album you liked, you could legally make a copy to play in your car. In the U.S., this is known as the “personal use exemption” of the copyright laws or, more generically, “fair use.”
Product Activation isn’t aimed at hard-core pirates. Instead, it’s part of a surprisingly powerful, coordinated effort to change the basic nature of copyright so people can’t make any personal copies whatsoever.
Another respected writer, David DeJean of the Desktop Pipeline, has asked, “Genuine Advantage To Who?” and goes on to say
I don’t have an argument with Microsoft’s desire to curb rampant piracy of its software, if it exists. But its right to get paid for its products does not give it a right to be disrespectful of its customers.
It’s an insult to my intelligence for Microsoft to claim that WGA offers me any advantage whatsoever. I’ve been around long enough to know that monitoring software like this is going to be a problem for me sooner or later. Inevitably Microsoft will tighten up the rules click by click. First I won’t be able to download security fixes unless I install WGA (which is really against Microsoft’s best interests, if you ask me, but that’s a different issue). Then the nag screens will become more frequent. And some bright morning WGA will decide that my copy of Windows is illegitimate (even though it’s not) and it must be disabled, and my PC will lock up. And the only thing I’ll be able to do is accept Microsoft’s gracious offer to install a legitimate copy of Windows, enter my credit card number to pay the ransom, clear WGA’s lock, and get my data back.
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