off topic

[Tobias Baldauf]

The thing they use is titled "Microsoft Genuine Advantage"-tool. It is
installed via the automated upgrades and compares your Win-Key to a
blacklist which is located on a M$-server. This list is quite up-to-date.

Earlier versions of this tool (I THINK [but don't know!] that it is an
ActiveX-component) were only working within Internet Explo(r/d)er and
were used to authenticate clients on the M$-Update-Site.

IE7 Beta1 was the first program (that I know of) in which the
authentication using the "Microsoft Genuine Advantage"-tool was done
outside Internet Explorer. The second beta 'features' ;-) this, too.

These early attempts were not directed against the costumers, but
against merchants who traded with pireted M$-Win copies. When users who
believed they had bought an original copy updated their system, they
were notified that their key was invalid. They could then contact M$ and
tell them where they had purchased their copy.

End-users could quite easily skip this authentication via a little line
of JavaScript. This was a good clue that M$ was not after the end-users.

The next step that has just now been taken in the U.S., G.B. and
Australia is that end-users can no longer skip this authentication so
easily and are frequently bothered by balloon-popups to go & buy an
original version of M$-Win. Clearly, M$'s focus has shifted...

Sorry for writing so much 'off-topic' ... I just wanted to answer this
question thoroughly.

Greets,

tobias

Ropetin Again schrieb:
> 
> On 4/27/06, *Daniel Carrera* <daniel.carrera at zmsl.com
> <mailto:daniel.carrera at zmsl.com>> wrote:
> 
>     bill biggs wrote:
>     > I hope the user do not get mad of this email
>     > Microsoft sneaks out piracy detection software Microsoft has included
>     > software in its latest batch of updates for Windows that checks
>     whether
>     > copies of the operating ...
> 
>     > This is one reason I do not like windows
> 
>     I've been wondering how Microsoft can figure out that a copy of Windows
>     or MS Office is pirated.
> 
>     Cheers,
>     Daniel.
>     --
> 
> 
> 
> Not being a big user of Microsoft I don't know for 100% certain. 
> However, you have to enter a Product Key to activate those products. 
> I'm sure there is some phoning home involved, so if they see 100s of
> different installs using the same Key they can assume it is a pirated
> copy.  Whether they act upon that information or not probably depends.
> 
> Roptin
>