more on How innocents can be penalized by Windows Genuine Advantage

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Synthesis: Law and Technology"  
<synthesis.law.and.technology () gmail com>
Date: June 14, 2006 9:52:18 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Re: [IP] more on How innocents can be penalized by Windows  
Genuine Advantage

Dave,

I suspect that these instances of legal copies being unfairly  
targeted will simply spur the development of ways to route around the  
damage, in true internet tradition.   This appears to be an instance  
of the more general problem of what constitutes piracy, what  
constitutes fair use and how do holders of rights interpret  
enforcement?  Of course Microsoft will try to aggressively attack  
piracy every way it can. Of course any attack that is overly  
agressive will unfairly target some.  Should we be surprised? Should  
we be surprised when creative people find ways to work around this?

We saw it in the music industry where sometimes perfectly valid mp3  
copies were targetted along with pirate tunes.  We saw it with  
books.  We saw it with images.  Its not a problem that I see going  
away any time soon, since the simplest solution for people (legal and  
illegal) is always to route around the damage rather than turn to the  
court systems.

Dan Steinberg

SYNTHESIS:Law & Technology
35, du Ravin phone: (613) 794-5356
Chelsea, Quebec
J9B 1N1

On 6/13/06, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Robert Alberti <ip () sanction net >
Date: June 13, 2006 7:26:16 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] How innocents can be penalized by Windows Genuine
Advantage
Reply-To: alberti () sanction net

Here's how my laptop got on the list:

I bought a Sony Vaio TX with a preinstalled version of Windows XP. I
discovered when I opened the box that Sony does not provide any driver
or OS DVDs with the machine - you can download all the drivers, or pay
extra for them to mail you the DVDs.

I did not like the configuration as delivered: tons of garbage demo
software that I did not want was included, and the drive was partitioned
in a manner I did not like.  So I wiped my drive and used my own
original windows XP disk to reinstall XP, including all service packs
and Sony drivers that I wanted.

I attempted to use the Windows key provided in the sticker on the bottom
of the laptop, but for reasons I do not know the key would not work with
my original version of Windows XP.  So I used the Windows XP key that
came with the disk, which I have always used for each of my laptops in
turn - laptops which I wipe with secure erasure software when I move off
of them (assuming the drives work, which is not always the case).

Maybe being installed on several laptops in turn has gotten my key onto
a list of "pirated" keys, or maybe some other criteria has failed.
Regardless, when WGA was rolled out, my laptop did not pass.

If Windows wants to provide me with a key-changing program, I would be
happy to try the code that came with my laptop. Maybe it will even work.

I'm not holding my breath.

Robert Alberti, CISSP, ISSMP
Sanction, Inc.
http://sanction.net

On Tue, 2006-06-13 at 18:34 -0400, David Farber wrote:
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
> Date: June 13, 2006 12:24:27 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: lauren () vortex com
> Subject: How innocents can be penalized by Windows Genuine Advantage
>
>
> Dave,
>
> In the wake of the controversy triggered by my earlier discussions
> regarding Microsoft's "Windows Genuine Advantage" (WGA) behavior,
>
> ( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000178.html ,
>    http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000179.html )
>
> I've received a lot of e-mail from folks who assert that they are
> being unfairly tagged by Microsoft WGA as having illicit systems,
> with continuing warning messages and attendant future restrictions
> on their ability to obtain non-critical updates.
>
> As I've noted previously, I have no sympathy for genuine pirates.
> However, there is a common thread running through many of the
> reports I'm seeing, suggesting that innocent users may easily end up
> with "pirate" versions of XP without their knowledge, and with no
> entirely clear and practical path to rectifying the situation.
>
> The scenario is obvious once you think about it.  People start off
> with the legit copies of the Microsoft OS that come pre-installed on
> their computers (relatively few people ever install their own OS, or
> would care to risk the process in any case -- most use what comes on
> their machines).  The OS copy is legal, authenticated, and paid for
> as part of the system.
>
> Now the trouble starts.  They have a disk crash or other serious
> system problem.  They take their computer back to the store's repair
> depot, or to a third party computer repair entity.  The computer is
> fixed and seems to be fine again.  Then suddenly, they start
> receiving WGA piracy warnings.
>
> Why?  It appears that it is *exceedingly* common for repair
> operations to reinstall based on "cloned" or otherwise duplicated
> copies of the Microsoft OS, rather than try to restore or
> reauthenticate based on the original users' OS serial numbers or
> authentication codes.  Original restore disks and key information
> cards/labels are frequently missing, making it difficult to
> duplicate the original authentication environment.
>
> Service depots tend to frequently have a working configuration that
> they can easily clone to repaired systems, and since the user
> originally paid for one copy of the OS (with their computer, now
> wiped out as part of the repair process), and ends up with a single
> copy afterwards, it's not like there's now an additional copy in use.
>
> Once their systems have been flagged by WGA, users may have a
> serious dilemma, even if MS is willing to provide clean versions of
> the OS to persons who can demonstrate that they are unwilling
> "piracy" victims.  Most of these users don't have original "pirated"
> disks to send over to MS.  In fact, such users are likely not to
> understand what is going on at all in this respect, since -- as far
> as they knew -- their systems had simply been fixed and then were
> working fine -- until WGA kicked in, that is.
>
> If MS could provide such users with a simple way to update their
> authentication keys that might be one solution, but an alternative
> such as having to completely reinstall a fresh copy of the OS
> would be completely beyond the pale for most users.
>
> I have not yet received a response from officials at Microsoft to
> e-mail I sent several days ago, asking specifically how they
> intended to deal with these kinds of WGA situations.
>
> As Microsoft ramps up WGA enforcement, we are likely to see
> scenarios such as these -- involving innocent users -- appearing in
> potentially very large numbers.
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein
> lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> Co-Founder, PFIR
>     - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> Co-Founder, IOIC
>     - International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
> Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
> Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
> DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com
>
>
>
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