Page 2 - Worm alert!

Wait, mPhill, are you saying what this worm does is not fair, or what MS's current things do isn't fair. I kind of understand the reasoning for what they do now. They are allowed to say, hey, no more support until we can verify you're using our product illegally. It often gets pirated, and I believe they have the right to protect themselves. I think they're very fair about allowing pirated versions to run, and recieve critical updates. Still don't like the idea of it, well, if you're illegal, get legal, if you're legal and just don't like it, move out, there are alternatives. And this was not an attack at you mPhill, just a general statement of my opinion, sorry to steal focus if I have.

I am trying to say that not microsoft not anybody else is allowed to illegaly colect informations of any kind, even to protect themself from piracy.
{
just a note:
you are (like anybody else) allowed to attack me, it's not a sin.
}
note2:
wellcome back.

They've the right to protect themselves yes, but then that means they need to talk/call/inform/warn the computer police deparments, those who are looking after pirating, and stuffs.. and then they will search, find those person/companys.. who are illegally using not only Win, and also other softwares.

But making a worm like this, they've no right to make a spyware, this is just they're loosing their respect.. doing shamefull things. It's not their problem, they aren't the "anti-piracy" department, it's NOT their job to determine who's using it illegaly and who's hacking or not.

It's like Mitsubishi company would like to incorporate a GPS in every of their car, to monitor which of their owner/driver where is driving, and how is driving. If they respect the driving rules.. etc. Come'on.. it's funny. Also I still support that idea, that it's SHAMEFULL.

Totally agree. It's a freaking spyware, and it must be killed, like the others ad'aware and spywares!

Umm, Microsoft didn't make this worm did they? They absolutely can say we will protect our software. What gives you the right to use it illegally, there's no reason that they should have to take that. The way it is now, IIRC, no info is collected, you are just limited only to critical updates, correct?

I think yes, so correct.

Can't stress enough, the only thing what bothered me was that "collecting information" part.

The real one doesn't collect any personal info, just info about the hardware and installed software.

Hmm, interesting.

Trust me, Microsoft could never get away with that.

actualy all it does is connect to the net and check that the windows regestration key is valid. if it isn't it automaticaly tells you to upgrade.

it used to do this at EVERY boot. but then they had (or chose to to avoide having to) to change it to only every so often... but i'm not sure how often...

you can't uninstall it once it's on. and M$ press it as a security update (dispite it's clear clasification is under DRM spyware).

The current Windows Genuine Advantage update whole purpose was to verify that the Product Key for the installed Windows XP was valid. Failure indicates that the installation was done with a illegal copy of Windows XP. It must be noted that no user owns their copy of Windows XP but is merely licensing its use from Microsoft.

I hear a lot of people saying they got a cheap of Windows XP off some web site or Ebay. How many of these are even legal? How is the buyer to know? Windows Genuine Advantage is designed to do that. The law says that if someone buys something at a price far below market value he is on notice that such a purchase may be illegal. There is no legal recourse for the buyer if it is later discovered that the these goods are not legal.

It appears that Windows Genuine Advantage is not doing anything more that what was done during the original product activation. If someone is caught this way then they can either do the right thing and buy a valid copy of Windows or continue in their nefarious ways and get on the Internet and find a new crack.

After looking at what Microsoft has to say about this it appears that the whole issue is overblown. If the Windows installation looks invalid WGA will cause a nag screen to appear. The message on the screen warns the user about the situation. If you resolve the issue the nag screen goes away.

What is so bad about a nag screen? Most shareware and trial software has them. Complaining about the WGA nagscreen is like people complaining about the shareware/trial software nagscreen. A lot of shareware/trial software even stops working after the trial period has ended. What if Microsoft had done this. It probably would have been legal for Microsoft to do this if could be proven that the installed software was illegal. User ignorance is rarely an accepted legal defense. Of course Microsoft probably stopped short of this because of the backlash and PR nightmare that would have erupted.

I think the real solution is simple. If you want to run a illegal copy of Microsoft Windows XP just turn off auto updates and stay away from microsoft.com. They will then have no way to find out about what you are doing. If you want updates then pay for the priviliege like the rest of us. Microsoft does not owe any kind of support to those who have not paid for it.

Description of the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications application
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=905474