Windows Calls Legit Users Pirates — Widespread
Why ongoing software validation like Microsoft uses will always suck:
An unknown problem in a controversial Microsoft Corp. anti-counterfeit process has been fingering genuine versions of Windows Vista and Windows XP as fakes since Friday night, disabling features on potentially millions of machines.
Beginning Friday around 8 p.m. Eastern, users started posting messages on Microsoft’s support forums, including Vista Validation Issues, saying that their PCs had been tagged as running non-genuine Windows. Overnight, the number of users adding their accounts to the tale spiked significantly, and the frustration index jumped dramatically.
Once software is installed and running and validated on your machine, no remote server should be able to disable it at a later date under any circumstances. Period.
Vista actually starts crippling features sometime after it’s flags itself as not genuine. With XP, you’re just repeatedly called a thief.
