Windows Genuinely Annoying
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 22, 2008 at 12:56 PM PT
Microsoft’s renewed antipiracy push isn’t currying much favor among PC users running pirated software. In China, a nation where 82 percent of all software is unlicensed, many are lambasting the company over its Windows Genuine Advantage program, which blackens the desktop backgrounds of PCs running unlicensed copies of Windows and pesters their owners with constant warning messages.
“[Microsoft is] the biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users’ computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority,” said attorney Dong Zhengwei, who filed a complaint against the company with the Ministry of Public Security. “Microsoft’s measure will cause serious functional damage to users’ computers and, according to China’s Criminal Law, the company can stand accused of breaching and hacking into computer systems of Chinese. I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property, but it is taking on the wrong target with wrong measures.”
So what are the “right” measures, then? Offering Microsoft (MSFT) software for free in China? Sounds like it. According to a survey of 574,923 PC users on Chinese portal QQ.com, 73.33 percent of respondents said they were using pirated versions of Windows XP, and 51.58 percent said they intend to continue using pirated versions. Just 15.55 percent said they plan to buy a licensed copy of the software.
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Comments
DZ is an attention-starved clown. give me a break: ‘yes, we steal, and rampantly, but you should find a nicer way to tell them they are illicitly using MSFT property?’ wow! how presumptuous. I don’t think the chinese gov’t wants to get in front of this.
But, hey, if it works, maybe i can get my cable and internet for free…with a few annoying messages now and then. TimeWarner, are you listening?
Posted by darren cross at October 22nd, 2008 at 2:32 pmI find it interesting that Microsoft would expect its renewed WGA effort to substantially reduce piracy in China. With far more Chinese using unlicensed software than not, one wonders if they will simply go out and buy a (pirated) version of Windows that contains a fix for the WGA black-out. The people selling the pirated software will make even more money because people can get the pirated version cheaper than the legal version. And even if one had to turn off automatic updates to prevent the black screens, one could probably get the updates by buying cheaper pirated versions more often and still come out ahead.
In any event, it seems Microsoft will be hearing more from Dong Zhengwei. Apparently filing an anti-trust lawsuit againt MSFT a couple months ago was not enough for him. Strange though, how he asserts that Microsoft’s past efforts (or lack thereof) had led to some 10 percent of Chinese computer users employing pirated software, when the QQ.com survey puts the number of users of pirated XP at almost three-fourths.
Posted by kristin jones at October 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 pmThere is a simple solution – cut them off by activating a self destruct mode within Windows. Only when people lose something important to them (e.g. photos) will they learn not to priate.
Posted by Paul A at October 23rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm