Phil’s Diary - [Blog @ http://www.philsdiary.net/]
As you’d expect, Microsoft are locking down XP updates so they only go out to “Authentic” versions of XP. The Register give an overview here. It makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to discourage people from illegally copying XP, and by not providing this sort of automatic updates, it does just that.
Luckily for the rest of the world, they’re still going to provide some critical updates and patches, to fill in the holes. Without this we’d never see the end of zombies, viruses, and hacked machines.
You have to wonder how long it’ll be before either Microsoft record where the illegal copies are, and start doing an RIAA style attack. Or simply lock down the technology so that you need an online connection to use it, it needs to verify with the server, and the server just denies illegal copies, so they just don’t work.
Posted by Phil on January 26, 2005 09:45 PM | Categories: Technology
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I wonder if the policy change is just part of a long-range plan to lease software to customers.
By that I mean you buy a lease for a period of time, say one year. You activate your lease when you install the software. One year later, if you don't pay for another lease, the software is locked and stops working.
I dunno, maybe I'm just being paranoid.
Aloha - Dan
Posted by: DanS at January 27, 2005 6:57 PM