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microsofts anti piracy measures in china

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f0dder:
No, I don't see this as malware.

But on the other hand, measures like that piss me off. I've had more than one instance of (legit) Windows installs shitting themselves and deciding they're non-genuine. Sure, calling a toll-free number has fixed those instances, but I do not want to be suspected of piracy when I'm being legit - ticks me off, bigtime.

And of course the pirated versions of Windows work super well, and hardly ever end up in unactivated state. So this is just another example of the pirates laughing while eating their cake, and the legitimate end-users being inconvenienced.

Davidtheo:
I would like to point out Microsoft's own definition of malware.

Let us take the easy one first. "Malware" is short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network, whether it's a virus, spyware, et al.
-http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/alerts/info/malware.mspx
--- End quote ---

Now the fact is that this software "causes damage" to a computer, by MS own definition this is malware. IF however, the software came with MS Office and only stopped MS Office from working, and MS put a warning on the software when being installed then it would not be malware.

f0dder:
IMHO locking out the user doesn't qualify as "causing damage", and it's imho clutching at straws trying to classify it as such. And it obscures the important point - that lockout and DRM are just plain wrong.

czb:
IMHO locking out the user doesn't qualify as "causing damage"
-f0dder (October 29, 2008, 04:34 AM)
--- End quote ---

I think it does. Locking out in a wrong time can cause serious troubles...

Imagine you are a bus driver and the same happens when you have the bus full of people ;)

f0dder:
IMHO locking out the user doesn't qualify as "causing damage"
-f0dder (October 29, 2008, 04:34 AM)
--- End quote ---
I think it does. Locking out in a wrong time can cause serious troubles...

Imagine you are a bus driver and the same happens when you have the bus full of people ;)-czechboy (October 29, 2008, 07:57 AM)
--- End quote ---
That's a pretty contrived example, imho. And again, focus is shifted from the important "this is a bastard thing to do" to a useless argument of whether it can be called malware or not.

Another fine reason for not classifying this lockout mechanism as malware, is that it waters out the definition of that word....

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