Just how far will Microsoft go with its anti-piracy methods?
I have posted a number of times on the possible problems that might arise from Microsoft’s increasing obsession with piracy. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has an article on the subject that everyone should consider reading before getting Vista. Apparently the anti-piracy measures are going to be ratcheted up even more. The Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, seems to be determined to squeeze PC users as much as possible and never mind any inconvenience they suffer. At a meeting of financial analysts, he is reported to have said:
“Piracy reduction can be a source of Windows revenue growth, and I think we’ll make some piracy improvements this year”
“We have new technologies built into Windows Vista, something we call Windows Genuine Advantage [that] we’ve really dialed up in capabilities with the Vista release. I do think that will bring some revenue growth. We will have strong growth in the Windows business in emerging markets: China, India, Brazil, Russia and many others. Those markets are very high piracy.”
“We [will] really ferret through how far we can dial it up [WGA], and what that means for customer experience and customer satisfaction.”
Notice this last statement. It seems to be notice of even worse things to come.
Meanwhile, over at his blog, Ed Bott reports on recent problems with WGA here and also here. Bott is a leading Windows expert with many connections at Microsoft so he can deal with problems. If he is having problems with WGA in Vista, what do you suppose is going to happen to the average home PC user? More and more it looks like Microsoft doesn’t care.
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