more on Microsoft Plans For Automatic Hobbling of "Pirated" Vista Systems

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tom Fairlie <tfairlie () frontiernet net>
Date: October 5, 2006 7:55:45 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: wmagnus () samespace com, dpreed () reed com, lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Microsoft Plans For Automatic Hobbling of  
"Pirated" Vista Systems

Some thoughts:

...A billion free (i.e., pirated) copies of Windows Vista
floating around in Asia is infinitely more valuable to
Microsoft than 10 million paid-for copies. Consider the
implications if hundreds of millions of customers get
irked by the "hobbling" and switch to one of the many
viable alternatives.

...Microsoft and Adobe get away with this behavior,
and customers cannot simply vote with their wallets
since both are de facto monopolies--to a certain extent
at least. If I want to do certain kinds of image/video
manipulation (Photoshop, After Effects, Flash), I can
certainly use alternatives, but it will probably be *much*
more efficient to use Adobe (e.g., quality, printshop/
coworker compatibility, de facto standard, etc.). Likewise,
if I want to use the myriad software titles for Windows
that simply aren't available on other platforms (or stick
with the sheep and use Office the "traditional" way :-).
(disclaimer: baah)

...I'm much more worried about the privacy implications
of all of this more than I am about jumping through credit
card hoops. I'll give Microsoft as much money as I think
it's worth to use their products (e.g., I went out and
bought my home copy of Office 2003 at Best Buy; I haven't
always done this with my home PC, but thought there was
value in making this transaction). However, I don't think it's
fair that MS can effectively monitor some/all/most of my
computing lifestyle. They've been caught at this before
(e.g., putting your MAC address in the header of Office files),
and while my "lifestyle" is decidedly boring, it's still more
than annoying to have to tell the mother ship every time
I decide to make an IT change within the walls of my home.

Tom Fairlie

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Farber" <dave () farber net>
To: <ip () v2 listbox com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2006 1:41 PM
Subject: [IP] more on Microsoft Plans For Automatic Hobbling of  
"Pirated"
Vista Systems




Begin forwarded message:

From: Warren Magnus <wmagnus () samespace com>
Date: October 4, 2006 1:33:20 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Microsoft Plans For Automatic Hobbling of
"Pirated" Vista Systems

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
> From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
> Date: October 4, 2006 12:34:10 PM EDT
> To: dave () farber net
> Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
> Subject: Re: [IP] Microsoft Plans For Automatic Hobbling of
> "Pirated" Vista Systems
> I don't always agree with Lauren, but on this one, I do.
> There must be a few people in the Microsoft leadership (Ballmer,
> perhaps?) who have come to view their customers as enemies or at
> least peons who must bow down to the power of Microsoft in all things.
> Microsoft sees pirates - and it blames its customers.
> Microsoft sees pirates, and it lays a minefield in the path of all
> its customers, to blow up anyone unsuspecting enough to walk into
> that minefield.
> Microsoft behaves, in other words, like any power-mad dictator who
> feels the need to punish the many for the problems it suffers from
> the few.
> Is this the only approach that might make sense?   I guess it is
> when your management adopts a paranoid mindset.
> I'd suggest an alternative: think creatively about how to encourage
> customers to see the value you deliver.   Stop building your
> success on "controlling the market" and "lockin" that delivers not
> new value, but instead late, buggy crap with a few features thrown in.

Dave,

This is the usual anti-DRM argument and frankly I subscribe to this
position in general. However, having lost this argument numerous
times in the past with developers of other software, customer
compliance with copyright enforcement strategies has laid the
groundwork for this and proven that customers are totally OK with
this kind of corporate behavior. Consumers apparently have no problem
at all being treated like active criminals.

For years, Adobe, Microsoft, and everybody else who sells software
has used phone home registration schemes and lengthy serial number
keys. Some software won't even let you install on a second machine
unless you uninstall on the first machine (Adobe, I'm talking to
you). Users tolerate this without complaint and continue to vote with
their wallets. Users buy the software anyhow.

Further, I expect that despite the capabilities to throttle down or
even disable Vista systems, the mechanisms will be used to target the
big piracy players. East Asian copy houses that crank out pirated CD-
ROMs and publish stolen CD-keys along with them. Being able to shut
down the user might well limit demand for the big mass produced
pirate copies.

Setting the threshold to forgive small scale copying would mean that
a family could get away with installing the same serial number of
Vista on more than one machine. Microsoft has already shown huge
leniency with this kind of soft piracy  with regard to Windows One
Care which carries a 3 machine license that doesn't check to see
whether there are really only 3 machines installed with a single CD-
key. Similarly the Student/Teacher Editition of Microsoft Office is
very soft on the enforcement of the 3 machine license limit.

-W


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