Microsoft Wins Windows XP WGA Lawsuit 307
Rish writes "A lawsuit that accused Microsoft of misleading consumers to download and install an update for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) under the guise that it was critical security update has been tossed out. Last month, a federal judge refused to certify the lawsuit as a class action, which would have meant anyone who owned a Windows XP PC in mid-2006 could join the case without having to hire an attorney, and on Friday the same judge dismissed the case completely."
Re:No good (Score:4, Interesting)
Either way, I can't turn down everybody who lost their disc or can't find their product key (we can get it out of the registry if it's not on a sticker). I'd go out of business. It's a tricky line, and I'm pretty certain I've found an equilibrium, it's just annoying that MS gets away with this crap. I was just trying to demonstrate the effect it had on repair companies and MS customers.
They may have won in the courts.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No good (Score:5, Interesting)
That does not always work. I replaced the motherboard on my GF's PC and reinstalled Windows. WGA would not activate. She spent about an hour on the phone trying to get a human at Microsoft. When she finally did, she was told that there was nothing they could do.
This was a retail copy of XP that she paid over $100 for. Microsoft has her $100, she has no OS. Those of you who like to compare piracy to theft, this is what real theft looks like.
I did put her on Ubuntu for quite a while, until she decided that she couldn't live without Freehand MX (which has some problems under wine). So we pirated XP. Seems fair to me.
Re:Good. There *should* be consequences for using (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:My friend bought "legitimate" CD (Score:1, Interesting)
If you buy a stolen TV and the police show up to take it, it is also your problem, even if you have a receipt. If a deal is too good to be true, it probably is.
Re:They may have won in the courts.... (Score:2, Interesting)
now you have steve watching every single thing you do on his computer, you will pay 130$ for service packs, and good luck getting parts or repair on that mac (which has a very high chance of failure within the first year)
Try using Apple HW instead of just bashing it. There are a lot of MB/MBP out there running MS crap because they are so reliable, and actually run software without machinations. Rating a new version of an OS as a service pack is ludicrous. Maybe you ought to actually use a permissions based OS before you run your keys the next time
Re:Good. There *should* be consequences for using (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree, to a point. However, I don't believe all of the "we can change everything we want to" was in the original Windows XP EULA. It got added in with the various service packs, etc, that were included in the purchase price of the original software. So the only EULA I feel I "chose to accept" original one on my XP CD. I was coerced into agreeing to the others in order to get updates that I was told I already had the right to. I'd agree with you fully if I had had the opportunity to accept or deny the new EULA in return for something new.
Oblig. car analogy: "Now that you've had your car for 5 years and it's paid for, we've decided to reduce your 10-year warranty to a 5-year warranty, which has now just expired. If you want your 10-year warranty back, you have to allow us to install this box that monitors to make sure the car hasn't been loaned to anyone else without our consent, and if we think it has we can deny you warranty service, and the "Check Engine" light will light up every time you start the car and warn you that your car is no longer genuine."
But, you're right - Microsoft does business the way they do business, and it's pretty clear that they are unapologetic about these sorts of one-sided contract changes. They've got you by the short-and-curlies, and that's just the sort of behavior they are known for now.
I also agree with your solution. I switched to Linux Mint, largely in response to the underhanded tactics that crammed WGA on my computer without my knowledge or consent. It took a while to migrate everything I do over to Linux, but it's done now, and I can happily say that my household is now 100% Microsoft-free.
"RIP one Microsoft Customer, starting with MS-DOS 3.0, ending with Windows XP+WGA".
I'm also only one customer, and I fully realize that Microsoft doesn't give a flying shit about my stance. It's OK, the feeling is now happily mutual.
Re:No good (Score:5, Interesting)
Two things. On your first paragraph, all it takes is someone unfamiliar with the terminology to say something that doesn't mean what she thinks it means and you're in the wrong part of the call script. Given how confused the average end-user gets when faced with terms like CPU, PC, memory and so on, this is fairly easy to happen. Say Microsoft asks if the CPU was replaced, and the caller thinks that means the whole case thing, which hasn't been changed. (There's plenty of people who call the whole box the CPU.) Immediately you're going the wrong way, because the activation codes say "new CPU" but the customer says "no, same CPU".
On the second, a DVD player is a physical product. I have absolutely no qualms about replacing DVD DISCS that have failed with copies I made from friend's originals or rentals. About 2% of my collection has failed in this manner, more 20 discs, including the very first James Bond DVD releases. (I couldn't find a trace of the UPCs on imdb.com or amazon.ca; it's like the studios disavowed those particular pressings.)
So making a pirated copy of Windows when you have the retail box, store receipt and original disc? What's wrong with that? You've met the terms of the license agreement, but a technical fault is preventing you from using the software. Overcoming that fault does not make you a software pirate.
I have done similar things with commercial software. The company took our money for a particular configuration, but their license manager won't allow that configuration to be enabled. So I decompiled the code and removed the license manager. We pay our annual maintenance and are well within the legal terms of our support contract, it's just a defective technical limitation that's in the way.
Re:Good. There *should* be consequences for using (Score:3, Interesting)
We all get it, MS's EULAs suck, I dont know about everyone else, but I got over the outrage a long time ago. When I use windows, I comply with the EULA, and if my customers have an issue, i just put the activation phone call on speaker so they can hear for themselves what I have to go through. Its not my problem, if activation doesnt work for a client they know whose fault it is, and if it doesnt work for me, I repartition my drive to some form of linux until I get over it.
If youre on some crusade to get MS to make their EULA into some form of the GPL, then I'm sorry, youre wasting your time. Most people just dont care about this and youre not going to change that on your own. If youre a tech, your job is to comply with whatever licensing you buy into, no matter what "Im changing the world with my piracy" bullshit you may want to buy into.