Microsoft to Launch Anti-Piracy Initiative
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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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The UK music industry is set to launch legal action against people who download music from the net.
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Microsoft Corp's  upcoming  Windows Vista computer operating system will include technology  that is designed to prevent pirated copies from fully  functioning, the software giant said.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Microsoft&#39;s (Quote, Chart) chairman and chief software architect said the move to Web services (define) could ease the Internet&#39;s security woes and that digital rights management can balance out piracy.
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Efforts by Microsoft Corp. and the PC industry to expand into to the living room will get a boost next week as they show off technologies that try to balance Hollywood's piracy fears with the appeal of digital media.
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Microsoft Corp. plans to severely curtail the ways in which people running pirated copies of its dominant Windows operating system can receive software updates, including security fixes.
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Despite pleas from fair-use advocates, Microsoft plans to patch an application that can strip Windows Media files of potentially restrictive DRM (digital rights management) technology.
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(InfoWorld) - Hackers are distributing a file that they say lets users of the corporate version of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system get around the software's anti-piracy mechanisms. Windows Vista must be "activated," or authorized by Microsoft, before it will work on a particular machine. To simplify the task of activating many copies of Vista, Microsoft offers corporate users special tools, among them Key Management Service (KMS), which allows a company to run a Microsoft-supplied authorization server on its own network and activate Vista without contacting Microsoft for each copy. The software Microsoft.Windows.Vista.Local.Activation.Server-MelindaGates lets users spoof that KMS process, allowing them to activate copies of the enterprise editions of Vista, its creators say. The hacked download is available online on sites including The Pirate Bay and other file sharing sites. Microsoft's official KMS offering is available to customers with 25 or more computers running Vista. The machines activate the software by connecting to the KMS server, and must reactivate every six months. KMS is not the only option that enterprises have for volume activation of Vista: they can also call Microsoft by phone or connect over the Internet to activate the software. The MelindaGates hack allows users to download a VMware image of a KMS server which activates Windows Vista Business/Enterprise edition, its creators claim. Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment on the hack. Vista is the first Windows operating system that requires volume users to activate each product. The new activation processes are aimed at reducing piracy. While one security expert said he isn't surprised that KMS has been cracked, he said the MelindaGates hack offers some insight into piracy. "This also shows how piracy is not just about kids swapping games," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of F-Secure. "The only parties that would need a KMS crack would be corporations with volume licensing."
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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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The U.S. hopes to focus certain international trading partners on the piracy problem with a voluntary anticounterfeiting trade agreement.
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Microsoft Corp. on  Wednesday  launched its biggest initiative yet to combat rampant software piracy in Brazil, allowing only registered customers access to "non-critical" updates of its Windows operating system.
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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company hopes to squeeze more revenue from countries where software piracy is rampant by dialing up anti-piracy technology in Vista.
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When Microsoft Corp. said it planned to begin checking for pirated copies of its Windows operating system using the method it set up to send people security fixes, even some of the company's traditional critics could sympathize.
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Microsoft has begun a short-term validation programme aimed at tackling software piracy. Users are invited to have their copies of Windows XP analysed, with the promise that they will be replaced free of charge if found to be counterfeit.
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Microsoft's recent anti-piracy efforts -- more aggressive anti-copying technology and a string of lawsuits -- are helping the company bring in new revenues, company officials said Thursday.
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Microsoft unveils PlayReady, a digital rights management platform designed to protect a wide range of mobile content.
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Microsoft says it is working to close a breach of its technology that protects digital files from copying.