05 October 2006
WGA Falsely Identifies Pirated Copies of Windows
Earlier this week (Oct. 2-3) some Microsoft Volume License Key (VLK) customers began experiences problems where Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) on their Windows XP systems was incorrectly reporting systems as non-genuine.
At this point it is only an inconvenience and a nuisance, but with Vista incorporating the feature of locking the system when the system is viewed as invalid, what is going to happen if this occurs after the release of Vista? Such an event could lead to companies running Vista servers having their network go down due to the servers ceasing their operations. This is something that can cost thousands, millions or even more lost dollars in revenue and productivity.
Such a feature is good for preventing piracy, but unless the software can be completely sure, without ever having any flaws, that the system is a pirated copy, this feature becomes very dangerous and risky for companies which cannot afford to have their computers down at any time.
This is not the first time this has happened, earlier this year there was a columnist who had something similar happen to his computer.
At this point it is only an inconvenience and a nuisance, but with Vista incorporating the feature of locking the system when the system is viewed as invalid, what is going to happen if this occurs after the release of Vista? Such an event could lead to companies running Vista servers having their network go down due to the servers ceasing their operations. This is something that can cost thousands, millions or even more lost dollars in revenue and productivity.
Such a feature is good for preventing piracy, but unless the software can be completely sure, without ever having any flaws, that the system is a pirated copy, this feature becomes very dangerous and risky for companies which cannot afford to have their computers down at any time.
This is not the first time this has happened, earlier this year there was a columnist who had something similar happen to his computer.
Labels: microsoft, vista, wga, windows, xp
