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The Microsoft Anti-Piracy Plan
By WebProNews
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2005-01-27
Microsoft has announced that it will now require Windows users to verify that their copy of the OS software is genuine before they can receive updates and security fixes.
Microsoft considers this an essential step to stopping blatant world-wide piracy of Windows.
Just one question Microsoft ... what would happen to this plan if Windows no longer needed security updates? Of course the question is only hypothetical. :)
Microsoft said that by mid-2005 it will put a piracy lock on two of its download Web sites, requiring all Windows XP and Windows 2000 users to validate their copy of Windows as genuine before downloading commences.
Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client Business at Microsoft stated, "Software piracy costs customers, software vendors and national economies billions of dollars every year. The best way to fight software piracy is to ensure that users recognize and receive all the benefits of genuine software,"
He added, "When our customers participate in Windows Genuine Advantage, they will know they have easy access to updates, added-value software offerings and other benefits of genuine Windows XP, not the uncertainty and risks of counterfeit software."
"Software piracy is an enormous problem for honest system builders and resellers because it creates an unfair price advantage for distributors who sell their counterfeit products at artificially low prices," said David
Stinner, president of US itek inc. "The Windows Genuine Advantage Program will help us because it levels the playing field for honest channel partners, and because its added-value software offerings differentiate the genuine product we sell from the counterfeit products we compete with."
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