Microsoft Mistakenly Accuses 2.6 Million Half A Million Of Having Pirated Versions Of Windows
from the ooops dept
Remember Microsoft's "Windows Genuine Advantage" program? The one that would tell you if you had a pirated copy of Windows, but was coming up with all sorts of false positives, causing trouble for plenty of legitimate users? Well, now it appears that Microsoft is 'fessing up to the fact that it may have mistakenly labeled somewhere around 2.6 million legitimate Windows users as "pirates." Update: Techweb has updated their article (without ever noting that they did so, or why they made the change), lowering the number from 2.6 million to around 500,000. Of course, they hid that in the stats by pointing out that it's less than half a percent of the 512 million systems validated through WGA. No matter what, though, that's a pretty large number of people falsely accused of piracy, and raises plenty of questions not just about the additional overhead costs for Microsoft in dealing with all of those false positives, but in the legitimacy of the entire program.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Well...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Avast Me Hearties!
Yeah, and how many Vista systems are going to go into "reduced fnctionality mode" becasue of false positives?
MjM
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Yes...buy a Mac!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
it's LINUX (try ubuntu...)
Or do as I do, dual OS W2K and linux
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
I'm looking for less DRM headaches in my life and do not want to have DRM imbedded in every function of the OS.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Mac
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: buy a mac
mac compatible games
mac compatible videos and players with codecs that run the bittorrent downloaded pRon
macs are visually cool but just as annoying and frustrating when something doesnt work
or for diagnosing a problem...
I would rather go with a FREE Linux OS - FEDORA and deal with the frustration bcoz its FREE!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: buy a mac
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: buy a mac
Not sure why that makes people idiots. My guess is that without these types of users, 85% of the people on this board wouldn't have jobs.....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Yes, of course. Don't buy another PC. Unless your computer is dying, vista offers absolutely no reason to upgrade. (and don't you dare point me to the wikifud articles on how great vista is)
When your PC is dying, seriously consider alternatives to buying another Microsoft OEM box. Mac is an alternative. Just try it, you may feel liberated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: avoid vista
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
You could try this or some variant of this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Vista
http://www.ubuntu.com/
is one way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
just think more then what if , and try to think how can I ...
you'll find answer even on google :))
btw: i still wait for riaa and mpaa to sue search engines over as a torrent file distributers :))
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: avoiding Vista
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Yes, it can be.
2600000x = 512y * .005
You mistake was assuming that y = x. In this case y, or "Systems" referes to the sales and distributions channels or regions, and NOT # customers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sounds familiar...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Wow, they're gooood...
I dunno. Maybe I don't understand the big corporation mentality yet, but I personally would fear being the head developer for anti piracy measures after seeing the nightmare that is Microsoft. Why go to all the effort to have a system disable itself if it's marked as pirated? This is why I believe Microsoft should have broken the Windows franchise into two parts with each release: the core operating system (bare essentials with a cost around $20) and the core utilities (all the bells and whistle, maybe even MS Office, for the additional $5000). Again, I don't work for a large company, so I'm sure there is a big marketing strategy involved, but I just think they could regain a lot of trust by doing something like that. They're rich enough... :P
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wow, they're gooood...
Nice thought.
However, they can't do this, because people would then pile free apps on top of the "cheap" OS, making it nearly/just as functional as the $5k version.
My opinion anyway.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Wow, they're gooood...
Power is what you have when you don't have to use it.
Microsoft have trodden a dualistic line for years. They've openly ignored massive piracy to ensure that Windows became the dominant operating system in the world. They even ignore large corporations who don't have full licensing paperwork. For a long time they have sold "subsidised" versions of Windows to developing countries. And of course they routinely ignore individuals with unlicensed copies the way a an elephant ignores flies on its back. This is never an openly stated policy, it's just the way things work.
IBM could halt every business in the USA tomorrow if it unleashed its patent doomsday device. But collapsing the North American economy wouldn't make them look very good. Or do them much good financially in the long run.
Microsoft show just the same sort of tolerence, but not for merciful reasons. Once they know the hook is properly in place then the line will be reeled in. The hook is having all your documents and resources in a non-translatable proprietry format. The line and rod are called "Vista".
Vista is the chef d'oeuvre, the masterstroke that Microsoft have been planning for ages. Many businesses are cornered and see no choice but to upgrade to Vista once XP is finally decommisioned.
That's when the screw will tighten.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Legitimate Keys
Before any one says anything, every time I call them its for a legitimate key.
I have found a lot of information on how it keeps track of the PC its being activated on. I also have found a way to never have to activate XP again after activating it the first time, but it only works on that same PC. Saying that, I have complained almost every time I call them, saying I don't know why I have to activate it. It worked over the Internet the first time I did. Maybe if I complain enough they'll stop doing it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Legitimate Keys
I too have found the same results. And also, I am in the same business as yourself, building and repairing PCs.
Also during these times, I am on the phone with MS for no more than 10 minutes (usually only about 5) and the legit WGA/KEY installation issues are resolved. Mostly reaching an person of Indian background, but who cares, Im not asking for technical advice, I am just exchanging WGA/KEY confirmation numbers and then I'm quickly off the phone.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: never have to activate XP again after activati
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Or use Ubuntu..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Microsoft WGA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Try to do simple math BEFORE you let the world kno
You really think MS only sold 512 copies?
2,600,000 / 512,000,000
OMG it's .5%!!! NO WAY
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Linux
Oh yeah, as soon as all PC users magically become programmers to write their own drivers...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Linux
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Linux
that said, the real difficulty is getting users to migrate to a different OS. for people like us (programmers, PC enthusiasts, anyone with over 1TB of por^H^H^H disk space) it's not difficult. after all, we live and breathe silicon and those funny tubes the internet is composed of. but some people have a hard enough time mapping mouse movement to cursor movement, or understanding the difference between a download and an upload. sit them in front of a computer without a "Start" button or without a "My Computer" icon on the desktop...or for heaven's sake, without a desktop manager! and they'll be as lost as Paris Hilton at walmart
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I _am_ a programmer... and I have never had to write any drivers for my Ubuntu box... I must be doing something wrong!
When I installed it, network, video, printer and sound were all operational without having to do the reboot/insert-driver-disk thing. Can Windows say the same?
I am not Linux zealot - there are also Windows 2000, 98 and XP boxes in my house, and the Ubuntu machine has been by far the most maintenance-free machine, needing on average, three or four reboots a year.
To be sure, Ubuntu has its limitations, but it is perhaps a little disingenuous to dismiss it out of hand.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: 2.6m half a percent of 512
Surely the original just meant to say 512 million. That would make it correct (reasonable approximation, anyway)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Linux
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
and maybe so many people would not pirate M$ software if it was not so costly.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://www.ubuntu.com/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As usual, I'll grumble about direct X
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: As usual, I'll grumble about direct X
Video games are a waste of time IMO. Something to think about
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: As usual, I'll grumble about direct X
TransGaming already has most of this fixed. Next objection?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just Curious
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
if only
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's how they got there..
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
orderly queue for the lifeboats
For complete noobs I suggest
http://www.linspire.com/
You can buy a distro for as little as $10, c'mon that's almost the cost of the CD and the shipping.
Next in line
http://www.ubuntu.com/
You can download for free and you get support for free! Not quite as much like Windows for the first time user though.
If you want to support all modern Linux distros how about donating
a few bucks to these guys. Debian is for experts, but is one of the most powerful and general configurations.
http://www.debian.org/
And if you want to support free software at it's root then support these chaps
http://www.eff.org/ and http://www.gnu.org/
A good runner up for the desktop is
http://www.mandriva.com/
And if you run a business and want to pay for a very powerful and well developed enterprise suite then there is only one
http://www.redhat.com/
Desktop users who aren't sure yet if they want out or whether to go down with the ship should try a LiveCD distro first. All the major distros now have a Live CD.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: As usual, I'll grumble about direct X
it's not our fault if you're dysfunctional. there are plenty of people who realize that games come after work. :P
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: As usual, I'll grumble about direct X
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Happened to me...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Happened to me...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Happened to me...
Exactly. Mine was a Dell machine as well, my work machine. IT department decided it was easier and faster to re-image than to waste hours arguing about it with Dell tech support, who pretended that they had never heard of the problem. I wish now that I'd insisted on them getting a new key from Dell, though, because there's no telling how many productivity hours I've lost from settings that didn't transfer like I thought they would. Le sigh.
It wasn't my money, but it still really chaps me that a couple of hardware upgrades to a machine means that you get treated like a crook. This could just as easily have happened to me at home, but I've made sure that WGA doesn't download on my home PC.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
They still make billions of dolors
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Microsoft has been tight-lipped about the false positive numbers, but Tuesday Lazar said it was 'less than half a percent.' At that rate, as many as 571,000 people have been incorrectly identified as pirates."
They were discussing a percent of the positives that were false, not percent of the total systems that were false positives.
512 million ran the scan
22% of 512 million failed = 114 million
half of a percent of 114 million are believed to be in error = 500,000
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Correction
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Correction
It is like the unemployment statistics, seriously underreported. My bet is a lot of the accused contact their hacker buddies and learn how to commit the crime they were accused of, they have already tried playing it straight. I know one innocent who packed the computer up when they moved and just left it in storage rather than deal with it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, for sure. I hate Macintosh. The reason I hate a mac is because Mac users have yet to learn how to use more than one finger at a time apparently, and If i see that god damn spinning color wheel for no reason what so ever one more time Im going to eat the next iPhone I see.
But Vista- better than OSX Walrus or whatever they have moved on to now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You are a sad bunch of losers arent you...
Whe really gives a flying fuck what OS you run?
Each has its strengths and each has its weakness.
Why the constant fn crying about Microsoft? Dont use windows and stfu about it already...
Get a fn life (outside mommies garage) and get a fn job and stfu about which OS you run you bunch of self absorbed punks. NO ONE FN CARES THAT YOU ARE SO STUPID THAT YOU RUN A MAC OR THAT YOU ARE SO INTELLECTUALLY SUPERIOR THAT YOU RUN LINUX. NO ONE FN CARES BUT YOU! GO BACK TO YOUR TREE HUGGING AND LEAVE THE COMMENTARY TO THE ACTUAL EXPERTS, OK. SHEEESH....
Bitch
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I care what operating system you use.
My name is misanthropic humanist and I've been a Linux user for 10 years.
C'mon, share it with the group, you'll feel much better letting it all out.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
???
get a Mac.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
ummm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I dont think buying a new computer is the issue its a matter of when MS and 3rd party companies stop supporting XP.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: As usual, I'll grumble about direct X
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No mac
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yeah they accused me
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Microsoft Bashers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Gaming
No?
Okay then, Vista it is.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]