Microsoft's Copy Protection: It's Time to Mend It--Or End It
Say, want to read the next installment of my PCW magazine column--which, like this blog, answers to the name Techlog--a bit early? (It'll be in the November issue, which, in typically confusing magazine style, shows up around the first of October.) Here you go... -------------------------------------------------------------------
So help me, I?m not irrevocably opposed to copy protection. Software developers have a right to get compensated for their work, and they?re entitled to take steps to protect their intellectual property. I get that.
But Windows Genuine Advantage, Microsoft?s antipiracy techology, is enough to turn anyone into a hardcore copy-protection opponent. And never more so than on August 24th, when a bug on the company?s authentication servers caused WGA to lose its ability to tell a legitimate copy of Windows from an unauthorized copy.
Suddenly, thousands of Microsoft customers got messages informing them that their paid-for software was fake. Worse, WGA punitively disabled their access to features like Windows Vista?s Aero user interface and ReadyBoost accelerator?some of the very items that Microsoft had used to induce buyers to pony up for Vista in the first place.
Nineteen hours later, the company fixed the glitch, and users got their lost features back. All in all, though, the most Microsoft-hating hacker couldn?t have dreamed up a more telling expos? of WGA?s fundamental fragility.
This was hardly the first time the technology had caused headaches for innocent Windows owners. It already had a reputation for mistakenly fingering users as running pirated software when they weren?t: As posts in Microsoft?s own forums show, innocuous activities like adding components to a PC or upgrading its BIOS can lead to trouble.
And when WGA does behave as it?s meant to, it?s still no picnic. Download Windows-related items from Microsoft, and you?ll have to validate your operating system. Download some more, and you?ll need to do it again. The process is especially clunky in Firefox.
Even the way Microsoft markets WGA is broken. Its customers deserve a straightforward acknowledgment that the company is inconveniencing them to protect its profits, not platitudes about WGA existing mostly as a warning system for people who have unwittingly bought counterfeit copies of Windows.
That?s not all they deserve. After the August meltdown, WGA senior product manager Alex Kochis blogged about measures the company is taking to lessen the damage ?should anything like this happen again.? Excuse me? Any copy protection that can accidentally deprive people of features they paid for needs to be rethought from the ground up. Microsoft owes its customers a WGA that?s more predictable and less vindictive. It owes them copy protection that stays out of their face.
Then again, the folks in Redmond could eliminate all of WGA?s problems by simply eliminating the technology altogether. I don?t expect this to happen, but it?s not unthinkable. PC history holds multiple examples of software companies discontinuing the use of copy controls, from Lotus in the 1980s to Intuit after the 2003 tax season.
Every past instance of a product losing its shackles has had two things in common: There were unprotected competitors, and users told the developers behind the copy-protected ones that enough was enough. If I were Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, I?d take note of the fact that there?s no such thing as Mac Genune Advantage or Linux Genuine Advantage?and I?d listen very carefully to what customers have to say about copy protection in Windows.
Last time I checked, I wasn?t Steve Ballmer, but I?m still interested in your thoughts on all this. Drop me a line at harry_mccracken@pcworld.com, with your take on WGA.
PC World's Marketplace
PC World's Free Whitepapers
tech news tech blogs community & forums laptop prices software reviews downloads
The problem with WGA is that it only annoys/inconveniences people who actually bought Vista. There are to my knowledge several ways to bypass Vista activation. Whoever has used any of them know they have done so and they are not about to go clicking on any "validate" or "verify", so they will not get locked out of their systems.
Ah but then they won't get the fancy content requiring validation. Not from the Microsoft web site, no they won't. It's a big Internet out there though, and whoever found their way around Vista activation will find those other download sources. And will happily keep enjoying their systems, while genuine customers get their systems locked down by /bugs/server meltdowns/.
Conflict of interests: still pretty mad of having my paid for system stamped not genuine. I would have missed a very important deadline that day in August. I have the "workaround" still on my PC. I hope I will not have to use it. But I will not loose any more valuable time because of WGA.
Vista was the last straw for me. After buying a new laptop last week, I was horrified to see that Vista was gobbling up 750MB of RAM and 15-20% of CPU with not a single application running and idling. After cleaning up the startup list and getting rid of eye-candy, it was still using 550-600MB with no application running. WGA was an added pain in the neck. The result? I use XP on my old laptop and have successfully and happily migrated to Linux on my new one. As my XP machine is dying, I will exclusively use Linux from soon on and stay well clear of Vista. If Microsoft wants to force down our throats bloated, unfriendly, intrusive, disruptive software, it will keep on losing customers.
750 MB of RAM and 15-20% CPU? Might need to double check your settings. I have all the "eye candy" of Aero turned on and am surfing with Fox and don't come close to that kind of usage. Maybe spend a bit more for your next computer and get more than 1GB of RAM and a Celeron processor. I have been using Vista at home exclusively for several months now and have had no problems. I am sick and tired of people whining about Vista-grow up people!
So are people who have major problems with Vista supposed to smile, nod, and keep their mouths shut?
@cjsd859:
FYI, I don't have a Celeron processor, and I did check and optimize my settings immediately. Perhaps you should read my message again, or don't you care about misrepresenting people in your replies? Besides, why should I allow M$ do dictate how powerful (=expensive) my computers should be? It's time to get back some control of your computing life. I do thank Vista for having given me the motivation to switch to Linux.
All I am saying is you can't complain when you buy the $399 special at Wal-Mart and the machine doesn't run Vista to your liking. I am glad you like Linux, but most people don't have time to scour the internet looking for correct drivers for their hardware. Linux does have it's place, don't get me wrong, but I find it hard to adopt to an operating system with so many distributions/versions. It makes things more difficult than they need to be.
@cjsd850
Actually, mine is a $950 HP. Sure, not the most powerful machine out there, but not a cheap one either.
Get ready for wider issues with updates and validations as Microsoft is preparing to release source code to ISVs so they can offer similar update/licensing services. see
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/jul07/07-10slpservices.mspx
Software Licensing and Protection Services (SLP Services) will become available in the October timeframe.
If Microsoft can't get their own update strategy right (branding legitimate users as pirates when they are legit) for their own products and cause untold problems for end user sites, imagine what will happen when the full fury is unleashed via myriads of independent software vendors who try and work out permutations and combinations to suit their own end games. This will become a nightmare for sysadmins and businesses worldwide.
Besides their update process is also being done by stealth as per recent blog posts in other areas!
"Linux does have it's place, don't get me wrong, but I find it hard to adopt to an operating system with so many distributions/versions. It makes things more difficult than they need to be."
Why do YOU whine about others whining? Is it really that bad in your little world that people actually have PROBLEMS because of MS? I guess you are a loyal MS person that wants to see MS rule the world.
Using Linux does NOT make things harder.
Latripp,
It has been my experience that computer issues are caused by one of two things; 1) Crappy Hardware, 2) Improperly trained users. Running Linux fixes neither of those issues. If users find it difficult to run Windows, they will DEFINITELY have problems running Linux.
I am a loyal Microsoft user, and I feel that it is a shame that more people are not as loyal as they should be. Computing would not be as advanced as it is today without Microsoft, and I feel that people often forget that. It is easier to bash the multi-billion dollar corporation for their personal problems.
I hope that you read this and really do some thinking about your attitude towards Microsoft.
The problem with WGA - and the point of this article - is the problems it is causing for legitimate users. It is not about OS bloat or ease of use.
Regardless of the means used, determined crackers will still break the protection. I think MS could back off the intrusiveness of WGA and still prevent what they call "casual piracy".
Need an example? Pack a simple USB dongle in the box. Without it, Windows will not run. No WGA. No activation required. Simple, and it would prevent casual piracy.
Not only would this be good for MS, it would also benefit the end-user.
A. It would allow a person to install the OS on more than one PC while limiting it to being used on only one PC at any time.
B. It would be a form of security for the end user as well. Remove the dongle and nobody can access your files short of taking out the hard drive.
Just my 2 cents.
Woz
I too thought it was laughably ridiculous the first time WGA popped up during an update and had the gall to tell me the supposed benefits of installing it. Reading between the lines, they might as well have been saying "Here, please install this software to make your life more inconvenient." I was so aghast at Microsoft's conniving message that I took a screenshot of it to serve as a historical reminder of a bad business getting worse.
In regards to the person that had the post about VISTA's resource hogging ways a while back, I was experiencing unexpectedly high resource use in VISTA when in idle (no apps running). I checked for weeks and finally discovered the problem was with my Antispyware program. As soon as it was uninstalled, the system dropped from 55-60% average usage on both cores when idle to an average of 2% in idle mode. I have 3 GB RAM and with the antispyware it was consuming about 65-70% of the RAM; after uninstalling the software it dropped down to about 30%. Currently with Outlook 97, IE 7, Norton AV 2008, Windows Sidebar with several active monitor gadgets, a firewall, the Aero interface, and god knows what else running as services, RAM use is 32%. The Antispyware software was supposed to be VISTA compatible but apparently it wasn't ready for prime time.
When you have a monopoly there are no free trade checks, balances and controls. WGA would not be an issue if there were any real competition when selecting a PC operating system. WGA is an intrusion on everyone privacy and the fact is, it would not exist if there were viable alternatives to Windows. Unix and Mac users are such a small percentage of the market that MS could care less. (Sorry guys, no slam on you)
Even worse than WGA is the poor quality operating system code that MS continues to release to the public periodically? I have had Windows XP PRO on my PC's since 2002, and have wasted hundreds of hours just keeping the security holes plugged. And I only have four PC's. If for no other reason than professional pride, MS should do a much better job with its software. Shame on you Bill Gates! No wonder you are giving all you money away!
Also, as much as I detest government invention into our lives, we need regulation that protect us from this. Hazyz
i had a DELL laptop with XP. reformated, installed OS and then spent 2+ hours grabbing drivers and making them work.
add 30 days, WGA kicks in and I didn't feel like dealing with it anymore, since this laptop only needs to get on the i-net for roommate/visitors.
so, i grab Ubuntu, make the install CD and then pop it in the laptop. i start the install and then walk away for a bit. i come back, laptop driver disk in hand ready to sit down for 2+ hours to get the thing setup to my liking.
... well, EVERY SINGLE piece of hardware that needed a driver already worked and worked properly. i didn't need to do ANYTHING but normal admin stuff like setting up users. which, was very easy.
i am a computer nerd for more than 20+ years. i have NEVER had an easier time setting up a computer. actually, it took me longer to find the drivers on DELLs site than to install Ubuntu. well, WinMe was very nice with new hardware.
please don't compare Windows to Linus or Mac. not the same at all.
I agree to protection. But when it interferes with doing business and when it costs more in labor to get running than it cost to purchase, it is time to kiss that software company good by! The Nuance system is case in point. Not being a computer technician, and having to stop doing the application, to renew a license after a year is over the top!!