Microsoft&#39;s Piracy Replacement Offer: Trick Or Treat?
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Microsoft UK is offering FREE licensed copies of Windows XP to anyone who is willing to give up their counterfeit copies in exchange.
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MICROSOFT Corp. is staging another attack against software pirates with an amnesty program for unwitting users of bootlegged copies of its Windows XP operating system (OS).
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TechWeb - The company announced the Genuine Advantage program, designed to identify pirated software and deny that software access to updates. But does the anti-piracy program come at the price of decreased security for legitimate users? A roundup of Security Pipeline articles.
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Software piracy threatens to rob our cultural pioneers of their incentive to keep bringing us the best in everything they do. Microsoft is committed to preventing piracy from hurting legitimate software users, but by staying informed, you can ensure you're being part of the solution.   -- Microsoft on Software Piracy    Oops. Not taking your own advice is just silly.
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MS exec gets pragmatic about piracy A senior Microsoft exec has admitted that some software piracy actually ends up benefiting the technology giant because it leads to purchases of other software packages.â¦
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Businesses don&#39;t have to dump Windows to test drive free or low-price applications whose use may improve the bottom line. Sometimes the big software vendors act like their customers are locked into the proprietary products they sell.
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Microsoft Corp. will combat piracy of its flagship operating system by requiring Windows users to verify that their copy of the software is genuine in order to receive timely updates and security fixes, the world's largest software maker said on Wednesday.
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Computer giant Microsoft has launched a pilot scheme to replace counterfeit versions of Windows XP with legal ones. The first-time initiative is restricted to the UK and to users with pre-installed copies
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Users who fear that their Windows XP software might be counterfeit could get free legitimate replacements from Microsoft under a scheme announced last week.
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Microsoft is testing a new feature on its Download Centre website that can lock out pirated copies of Windows. During the test period, users of Download Centre can opt to have the Windows software installed on their PCs validated as genuine.
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Paying customers may not get their hands on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) for weeks, but pirates can download the brand-new code today, according to searches at several BitTorrent trackers.The RTM, or release to manufacturing, versions of both operating systems can easily be found on BitTorrent tracker sites such as Pirate Bay, which has made them available since yesterday.One torrent of Microsoft's newest server operating system, Windows Server 2008, lists 42 "seeders," the term for a computer that has a complete copy of the torrent file, and nearly 190 "leechers," or computers that have downloaded only part of the complete torrent. The Windows Server 2008 torrent installs a 60-day trial edition, according to users on Pirate Bay who have downloaded the 2.5GB disk image.Vista SP1, meanwhile, is even more popular. The most active torrent located using Pirate Bay listed 163 seeds and almost 500 leechers by mid-day Wednesday. Another tracker, Mininova.org, showed similar numbers: 159 seeders and 665 leechers.Pirate Bay reported the file as 2.9GB in size, while users who successfully downloaded the image warned others that it was not an upgrade per se. "This torrent is a complete install of Windows Vista including SP1. So there will be no option to upgrade," said a commenter on Pirate Bay using the alias "Soulshot." "You'll have to backup [sic] your Documents/Music/Pictures/Favorites, install the .iso to a DVD, restart and run the DVD. Which will erease [sic] everthing [sic] on your primary hard disk."Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 moved to RTM on Monday, when CEO Steve Ballmer touted both milestones during a conference call with financial analysts. Vista SP1, however, won't land on the company's download site until mid-March because of problems with device drivers, while the official launch for Windows Server 2008 has been set for Feb. 27. Neither operating system can currently be legally obtained by the public.Microsoft is no stranger to leaks. Last summer, for example, several builds of Vista SP1 that had been given to an invite-only group of some 15,000 testers ended up on BitTorrent within days.The company, of course, takes a dim view of counterfeiters -- one analyst recently estimated that Microsoft made an extra $77 million last quarter by cracking down on piracy. But its response to questions about the latest leaks was muted. "Microsoft cautions consumers and businesses that downloading software from a non-genuine source can pose risks to their environment," a spokeswoman said.
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This week we have seen numerous reports (a href=&quot;http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?id=352&quot;&gt;see here) in the trade press referring to Gartner UK analyst Annette Jump claiming that pre-installing Linux on PCs encourages piracy of Windows.
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The talk in the computer world seems to be whether or not to get Microsoft&#39;s Windows XP Service Pack 2. Both sides of the argument offer pros and cons as to whether or not computer users should proceed with this upgrade.
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Last week, Microsoft quietly launched a program to address piracy issues with their software. The new program called &quot;Windows Genuine Advantage&quot; is a new validation on Microsoft&#39;s download center.
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Microsoft Corp. is offering an olive branch to users of pirated versions of the Windows XP operating system. The software giant on Wednesday unveiled the Windows XP Counterfeit Project in the UK, offering
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Software pirates' increasing skill at creating counterfeit versions of Windows XP has prompted MicrosoftÂ  to introduce a pilot program that offers to verify whether consumers' software is legitimate and replace fake versions with authentic goods.
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Let's see if digital pirates are willing to watch ads to get music.