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Even the unique Vista retail packaging--a plastic box with one round corner--was designed, in part, to thwart counterfeiters. And the packaging is just the start; most of Microsoft's antipiracy work is built-into the software itself, meaning that just copying the code and getting a product key isn't enough.
"It's a different game for the counterfeiters," Cori Hartje, director of Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative, said in an interview. "They're having to resort to this full attack on the product."
One such exploit was dubbed "Frankenbuild" because it merged bits of the beta versions of Windows Vista with the final product in an effort to defeat the validation checks built into the software. But, thanks to technology built into Vista, Microsoft was able to update its defenses and start flagging such systems--even those that initially passed activation--as illegitimate.
The antipiracy effort has been building slowly inside Microsoft. Microsoft began quietly testing a Windows Genuine Advantage program in 2004 with an optional check that offered no benefits for taking part, nor penalties for machines that didn't pass. The company quickly expanded the program, adding some incentives for those machines that were verified. The company later made the checks mandatory to download most Windows updates and add-ons.
Microsoft has seen reducing piracy rates as a way to boost its sales, particularly given that the fastest PC sales growth is coming in emerging markets where piracy rates tend to be higher.
With Vista, checking for pirates was always part of the plan. Technology built into Vista allows Microsoft to periodically evaluate the OS to make sure it is legitimate, rather than just having one opportunity, when the product key is first entered at activation.
That's important if Microsoft learns, say, that a once-valid product key has been compromised. Microsoft also used the validation mechanism after Frankenbuild was discovered, forcing machines to go through validation, which the Frankenbuild systems failed because the software was not an intact copy of the OS.
There are a number of features, including the new Aero user interface, that require genuine validation. As part of Vista, machines that fail validation go into reduced functionality mode if not remedied within 30 days, meaning such systems can be used only to browse the Internet for an hour at a time.
Microsoft has also tightened the rules on volume licenses, largely eliminating the ability for businesses, even those with bulk purchase deals, to use one product key across an unlimited number of machines. Microsoft has two options with Vista. Companies can either use their own PC or server as a sort of hall monitor to make sure which Vista systems are out there, or they can get a multiple-use key from Microsoft, though such keys have a set number of activations. Businesses can also use a combination of the two approaches.
It's a little early to tell how all of the efforts are working, but Hartje said there are some reasons for optimism.
"We see indications from our channel that they are concerned they get genuine product," Hartje said. "We're optimistic the technology changes are going to make a difference. The fact we haven't seen any high-quality counterfeits is a good sign."
While engineering is a big part of Microsoft's efforts, the company is also doing other things. One recent move was to change the way copies of Windows are produced. Rather than just license replicators to build as much of the software as they might need, such disc makers are now required to pay a part of the cost of the software when the discs are first burned, discouraging large stockpiles of authentic discs from building up in warehouses.
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antipiracy, product key, validation, piracy, activation
The only people whom these anti-piracy measures are hindering are everyday consumers who suddenly discover their computers have become unresponsive thanks to the inevitable glitches in the validation process. *I* have not had any problems with my Vista or XP installations in this regard, but I know of *many* others who have. Luckily, these folks are all quite computer-savvy and have managed to rectify the situation; but what about the Average Joe who only understands how to turn his computer on or off? What does someone like that do when Vista goes into cripple-ware mode or XP fails a Genuine Advantage check?
As a business model, you can chose to sell a few at $400-$600+, or you can sell mega-millions for $39.99. I've NEVER understood why they didn't choose the latter.
You can take their hundreds (thousands?) of programmers, and all their millions (billion?) in R&D, and all their years of effort, and all their WGA customer support costs, all the negative press, and built-up Microsoft hate from customers...all to thwart piracy ... I could resolve that in ONE easy step; Sell it for $39.99 and it won't be worth any normal person's time to pirate it unless they're doing it purely for hacking.
Benefits:
-Now multiply that by the mega-millions of "pirates-no-more" (who are actually now paying you money),
-remove all the insane costs of anti-piracy development,
-remove so much microsoft hate from the world.
-add all the people who now would automatically buy vista without a second thought
...and Microsoft...you might actually be more profitable. Not to mention being a forward moving company in good standing with the world.
Just my $0.02 ... err $39.99
And yet... none of these things fully work.
Whether you want or not, Windows Vista *IS* much harder to pirate than previous versions, that's a fact and only an ignorant person like you could deny that. The *REAL* only people whom these anti-piracy measures are hindering are people like you who suddenly discover they no longer will be able to go to their favourite warez forum or torrent site and download and install Windows for free without paying Microsoft a dime thanks to the ingenious measures Microsoft took with Vista from the ground up. *I* have not had any problems either with *any* Microsoft software ever in my life and I also know of *MANY* others who *CLAIM* they have; can you or they prove it though, that they have in fact had problems with genuine Microsoft software validation? Luckily reality is much brigther and, as long as yours software is in fact genuine, you have nothing to hide or fear and all you have to do is click a button who says "Validate" and wait a few seconds; but what about the average "pegritz" who only understand how to download a pirated version of Windows from his favourite warez forum or torrent site? What does someone like that do when Vista stops working after 1 month or after the first update when all the legal users like me are experiencing Vista with no problems at all?
Most USA companies have a "Buy a company purchase plan" or he gets one for free when he retires.
Will that Windows install now be invalid since it is now a home pc? Or will the key be tied to the PC? If Vista is installed then the old man must down grade to XP?
It seems like every time I update my XP Pro machines I have to
jump through some new hoops to update the updater and re-
validate my installations. It is inconvenient to ME! Why should I
have to spend several hundred dollars per machine to buy the
software and then have to spend my personal time trying to
convince Microsoft that I really gave it to them.
I refuse to be forced to PAY for the privilege of being treated like
a criminal so I will NOT be upgrading to Windows Vista. I already
use Apple's Macintosh as my primary computers and have been
testing Linux on others, so I foresee a Windows free future
coming to me.
What a wonderful future it would be (for the world).
Someone should invent a virus that turns Windows into Mac OS or
Linux, and unleash it upon the interwebs. Oh, wait - M$ already
tried to turn Vista into the Mac OS...
thief, regardless of the true facts.
Now, what is the big damage they are doing to you? The product is not even "periodically" being checked. It is when you ask for some maintenance (such as a fix or an update) that the product gets checked.
It would be like Coach or LV verifying a product you bring for repair is authentic before giving you warranty service. You wouldn't complain they are abusing you then, would you?
There are a lot of costs associated with keeping an OS up to date, perhaps Microsoft has a right to check the "quality of the workmanship" before offering these expensive free services.
Try sending in your knock off Coach wallet to get it repaired and see what the company tells you? Are you upset that the company checked to see if your product was legit before servicing it?
Also, you should read 1984 before making poor references to the work. Microsoft has never sent identifiable information along with activation. If you are using illegal software the company ISN'T recording your IP to give to the FBI.
really means:
"No one's buying it, and even the pirates are staying away from it - but not b/c of the copy protection..."
Linux still has a long way to go to be adoptable to the mass's.
When something goes wrong, IE, you get a new kernel update. And you NVIDA or ATI driver goes sideways. You need an easier way to fix it. Sadly most times you don't even know your system is in trouble until you reboot it. And sit there looking at a flashing _ or a command prompt.
When the system patch's there should be a system in place to warn of all the things that it breaks along the way.
It would also be nice to have a video player that works, not just sometimes but works. I have tried most of the ones I can find. And I still don't understand why sometimes I will open the video file and it plays. Then an hour later I click on it, and nothing happens.
Lasst night I played around with Ubuntu 7.04 just to see. I hate messing with Wine, so tend to use codeweavers.
Again even at that it took me 4--5 hours to get WoW to run. And then it was not stable at all.
Heck even google earth linux client. I tend to use it as a test to make sure direct rendering is running. I do not trust what the video card applet says. I do not trust fglxinfo, sometimes it says everything is fine and nothing works.
I lover beryl, and compz but the number of times it will just randomly crash back to the fall back manager is frustrating.
Time is worth money. And the amount of time, I sink into each build to make simple things work like playing a game. Far exceeds the $ value cost of a comprable MS product.
It holds lots of promise but it has been doing so since 1992. 15 years later, it seams we are still trying to play catchup to Mac and Microsoft. And yes I know you can make Linux do tricks with beryl that no MS product can do. But having it crash left right and center is not fun.
On the ID thing, its the way the world is, not only in software but real life. Go to your bank, you been going there every week for years, foreget your bank card. How many forms of ID do you need to show to prove to the teller that you have stood in front of so many times, that you are you.
Take your short form birth cert, go get a long form, how much ID, must you show how much paper work must you sign.
The main reason for most of this, is people take advantage. So yes there are hicups as a system smooths out. Homeland security anyone? But would this all be nessasary at all if people just played by the rules? Heck even with Linux read the license, its a surprising thing.
I have been burned twice by "product activation".
Once, the company went out of business and I could no longer user my bought and paid for application.
A second time, the manufacturer stopped selling or supporting the product.
Both pieces of software were valuable to me and had cost me hard earned $$$$.
In both cases I had to purchase a replacement that cost me additional $$$.
So, I will NEVER pay for software that requires "activation".
In any case, your examples have nothing to do with activation. What has activation got to do with a company whose software you use going out of business? Nothing in fact.
There is no reason to stop using an application just because the company that produced it goes out of business. You can continue using as long as you like. There will be no upgrades of course, but if the software already satisfied your needs, why would you be concerned about that?
On my Windows machines, I still use some applications made by companies that went out of business years ago. They continued to work even though the Windows OS went through a number of version changes in the meantime. There is no longer support for them, but why would I need support for applications I have been using for years without problems?
I for one, did some searching on the Internet...and you'd be surprised at the FREE software you can get. In fact, it's been around for quite come time.
The "Corporate Bullies" will ALWAYS be around..and there will ALWAYS be a camp that works tirelessly to make sure we can all get the functionality we want, even for FREE.
You just have to do some creative searching on the INternet.
Product activation is here to stay. Work with it or AROUND it.
You likely activated your credit cards when you got them
You sort of activate Netflix, iTunes, etc when you sign up for these sort of things.
So you're not paying any of these products? Have fun with that life.
Get a Mac and have professional-quality desktop software, and get a game console (Xbox, PS2) for your games. Unless you're into war RTS-strategy games, you're covered.
I think this is necessary because M$ has flown the coop.
Apple couldn't buy better advertising than this. Except for a few people that need specialized Windows-only apps, I think there will be a lot of people taking a look at the Mac. Not all of them will buy, but some will.
multiple computers.
"The tighter you squeeze, Lord Vader, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
"The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will
slip through your fingers."
But I knew what you were saying.
changes are under the hood so to speak. The use of a flash drive
as write through very fast cache is really clever and makes a
difference. The automatcially adjusting tcp receive buffer isn't
new, but its implemented to respond to application pressure
rather than just network issues. The presentation layer is pretty
well done as well. etc etc etc
But yes, many features are seen elsewhere. Its just the nature of
the industry. OS X, for example, really copied huge chunks of
itself from other sources. Even some design elements of the UI
were borrowed from pre-existing sources (fvwm for example).
But this happens and crying 'theft' is pointless as everyone is
stealing from everyone else. Mac borrows from Unix borrows
from Windows borrows from Mac borrows from Windows
borrows from Unix etc etc etc... Its actually part of what has
made technological progress so breakneck in the industry.
Just look throughout history for similar actions. Anytime people have perceived a NEED for a product (and there is definitely a NEED for Windows if you are to stay current in business or IT) and they cannot afford that product (the pricing for Vista is excessive and not based on real value) they will find a way to own it (i.e. they will steal it).
Microsoft is as much to blame for piracy as anyone else. Creating a monopoly on the desktop, then pricing the products out of reach of most of the developing world is just asking to be hacked.
IMHO, Microsoft would make more money if they priced their offerings according to actual value (taking their bugs and vulnerabilities into account as well as the cute, shiny interface) and in line with other desktop OS versions like Red Hat, Suse and Linspire.
All in all, Microsoft does NOT offer an OS that is more secure than the competition. It does not offer an OS that does more than what is available with the competition. But, it does have the largest user base and software library.
And, if you are going to do business or work in IT or be a knowledgable student of IT you MUST have Windows.
We could change this....but we won't.
performance of their computers so that Microsoft can go after
the pirates.
Once again, the paying customer suffers. The pirates will find
away around whatever tricks Microsoft comes up with.
A brief history lesson: Software protection was rampant in the
early days of personal computers (80s) and the software was
priced outrageously high. Then someone wised up, lowered the
cost of the software, removed the copy protection (which didn't
stop pirates and only hurt customers) and the market exploded.
Apparently MS was too busy to see that lesson. I think the real
issue is that MS doesn't have much more to offer customers, so
they see "enforcement" as the only means of growth.
Microsoft is very much like RIAA. Both are dinosaurs. Both treat
paying customers with disdain and contempt. Both believe that
everyone is a thief and it is only through their police actions that
they "protect" their assets.
I'm not condoning piracy -- I'm just offering up the point that
the reason for the crackdown is because there isn't anything else
MS has to offer. And because they are a monopoly, they can get
away with it.
It would also be great if these Mac "freaks" and Linux geeks would get over it.
Pirates really don't care either way because this stuff doesn't really stop them.
Microsoft said that prior to the business release of Vista that they were going to defeat the easiest way of getting a version of Windows that would never fail any genuine compatibility test.
How? By changing the way enterprise PCs activate Windows. What was supposed to happen was every 6 months instead of dialing Microsoft, a PC with an enterprise key had to be activated by a local area network license server. Therefore if you installed the enterprise version of Vista outside your company's local area network, after six months its activation would expire.
Great, except they didn't bother to implement this. Instead they cheerfully informed corporate license holders that PC would continue to dial Microsoft, however as they could count the number of activations per enterprise key, everything would be fine, because they could simply adjust the cost of licensing based on the number of copies of Windows activated.
In other words although we want to make this look a tiny bit like we may discount your licensing costs - the reality is if your security is too lax and your enterprise key makes it into the wild, we will charge you for every pirated copy of Windows activated under your key. Of course you can get your key invalidated, but the chances are you won't do that until after you receive a huge bill from Microsoft - and then have to input your new key on every one of your corporate PCs.
Bottom line for the pirate is that the easiest way of copying Windows is still available, and because you will have a valid key unless the company that owns it gets Microsoft to invalidate it, you will never fail to pass any of Microsoft's "Genuine Version" checks.
- Who Cares??????
- by coachgeorge March 30, 2007 8:29 PM PDT
- I will bypass Vista, What's next?
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