Product Activation is Counter-Productive
For those who've had their heads in a bucket for the last few years,
Product activation (PA) is the technology that is designed to detect changes in
your hardware and disable the system if those changes go beyond what Microsoft
thinks are reasonable (i.e., the PA code thinks it's now running on a different
PC). To regain the use of your system you have to contact Microsoft. PA is
implemented in all versions of Windows XP, but is "by-passed" in
Volume-Licence versions. Large-volume system builders like Dell and Compaq can
pre-activate their copies as long as they agree to lock them to a fixed BIOS
code - gosh, you weren't ever going to change your motherboard, were you ? Note
that in both cases the PA code is still present, it is just by-passed.
I'm in the business of writing safety critical emergency telephony systems that run under Windows. The idea of having code in the OS that's specifically
designed to disable the OS when it thinks it needs to... is enough to give me the screaming
heebie-jeebies. How would you like a server operating system with a hand
grenade duct-taped to the kernel ?
There was a fad for this sort of nonsense in the eighties, and Microsoft's
market share did very nicely by having products which were NOT copy protected. Every single instance of copy protection I've ever come across in the past
was a monumental pain in the backside, and stopped me ever buying that companies products again. I suppose as an
court-specified monopoly MS thinks it can get away with doing what the hell it likes.
Where else are we going to go ? To Linux ? Don't make me laugh.
Microsoft say this is about piracy. Rubbish. If PA was about piracy, every
copy of every version would have PA. But Volume Licence versions have
their PA copy disabled. So.... pirate copies of Volume Licence
versions of XP were on the net before you could buy your boxed copy. So then Microsoft "clarified" the target to be "casual copying". Do
Microsoft seriously think that the household with three PCs (one decent one and
two hand-me-downs) is going to shell out for three copies of XP ? Even with
their laughable 10% home licence pack discount ? Please note - you wouldn't even
have got that joke of a discount if we hadn't spent so much time screaming about
the need for home licence packs on the beta. We wanted much bigger discounts
than 10%, I can assure you.
Oh, and folks surely aren't going to buy an XP licence and run 2K are they ? because
some of us would need
Microsoft's WRITTEN PERMISSION to do that:
http://www.microsoft.com/PERMISSION/copyrgt/cop-soft.htm
Not that MS marketing cares, because even if you do downgrade your new
computer with or without their permission, as many companies are doing, then MS still
count the XP licence as a sale. Lies, damned lies and statistics, folks. Don't
believe anything you read about XP sales.
Note this folks : Microsoft completely disregarded their horrendous far-east
industrial piracy problem (want XP for $5 ? visit Hong Kong) and concentrated on
the "casual-copying" home user when designing PA. It's all of a piece
with their concentration on pointless eye candy and teenager toys like instant
messaging. They want the home, and if the price is that your
mission-critical server's
stability is compromised, so be it.
There's another possibility, of course. Let's see... "casual copying" is
combated by designed-in killing code, risking a corporate backlash and requiring huge capital and recurrent costs in call centres and staff worldwide ?
Seems a little unlikely, doesn't it ? Maybe the much-mooted move to rented
software (turning a one-off purchase into the revenue stream beloved of
marketing departments everywhere) has more to do with this massive outlay of
money. If we were all forced to rent our software - using activation of course -
they'd need those big call centres and lots of staff to handle the process. But the world and his wife
are - not suprisingly - voting against rental
software, which makes the PA debacle look even more stupid, as those call
centres will never now be put to the real purpose they were developed
for.
As the sage said, never attribute to conspiracy that
which can be adequately explained by incompetence. Maybe Microsoft just started
believing the self-serving fantasy figures emerging from the anti-piracy
industry.
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