Get the (Windows Genuine) Advantage
There’s a lot of buzz around at the moment following a post on ZDNet, regarding the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Tool and how it’s possible it’s now being positioned to shutdown pirated versions of Windows XP, at some future date.
Microsoft have counted with various press releases (summarised here and here), indicating that this is not indeed their intention. Even still, the whole debate cannot be hurting them, in the long run. What we’re seeing at the moment is a general concern that maybe pirated versions of XP will suffer some calamity at some time in the future, which it’s safe to assume Microsoft are hoping will coax some of the softer users to change their ship’s flag from a skull and cross bones to one with four coloured squares.
If you think about it, right now there are only a few groups of people who are showing actual concern:
- Pirates (yaarg!)
- Slashdotters (see: M$ bashers who in all reality probably use illegal Windows anyway)
- Journalists
Pirates don’t matter, as they’re not paying customers anyway, so it’s fine to piss them off.
Slashdotters can’t be made happy by anything, especially Microsoft. Even if Bill quits and forks a furtone over to charity, he’s portrayed as a monster with some hidden agenda. Again, a non-event in terms of negative publicity.
Some of the journalists involved are standard Microsoft bashers and will write negative reports in all cases. Many of the others are just looking to get involved in the story of the moment. Even still, it’s thanks to these people we are aware of the (potential / alleged) situation and Microsoft is getting it’s free publicity. Does make me wonder if Microsoft started the whole rumour, in the first place?
So for all the comments about only hurting themselves, where’s the pain in all this? Generally, they don’t have to do anything, just make people fear it may happen and they stand at least a fighting chance of getting some people to pay for their \/\/@r3z wares).
Of all the stories about people who got locked out of their computer, even though they had a legit version, I call shenanigans. First of all, WGA doesn’t lock you out or turn you computer off and secondly, it’s standard urban legend material… “someone I know” or a “friend of a friend”. So what we’re left with is a good scare campaign, hardly Microsoft’s first use of FUD (Fear Uncertainty & Doubt), to sell units and no real chance of lasting damage.
What’s the other side of the coin here? Should anyone really cry foul, if they are knocked over, by knowingly using pirated warez? I mean, if you think about it, WGA has been around for a while, so they’ve had plenty of warning. So if you’re knowningly stealing and things go bad, who’s really at fault here? I’ve read many reports about how it’s Microsoft who are to blame (bad software that’s not worth paying for, the old “i did” pay but somehow lost my CD key or something went wrong, etc) but at the end of the day, these all amount to either unbelievable lies or people trying to justify their theft.
At the end of the day, the arguements against WGA don’t really stack up.