It really doesn’t matter where you turn on the web someone somewhere is bitching about Microsoft’s efforts to protect their copyright with the Windows operating system; whether it is through the wording of their EULA or the implementation of Windows Genuine Advantage. Well get ready because it is only going to get worse very soon as Microsoft is getting ready to switch on the Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) for Office 2003 and its upcoming release of Office 2007.
As reported by ITWire:
As of October 27 last week, anyone using a pirated version of Office will no longer be able to download Office templates or other Office downloads. From January 2007, pirated Office users will no longer be able to check for and download Office updates.
Should a Service Pack 3 become available for Office 2003, or other security updates for Office 2003 and earlier, still supported versions, your copy of Office will be checked for authenticity before the download will begin.
If you’re not legal, you won’t be able to update Office, and will have to run the risk that documents you receive from others don’t contain threats that could damage your system.
So what will we be hearing from the users once they get past the initial whining that Microsoft is being so unfair? The most likely will be same as when they implemented WGA on a wide scale – user’s hitting the search engines looking for free or low cost alternatives like OpenOffice.org
One of the more interesting questions raised by Alex Zaharov-Reutt is whether those folks that have easily been using pirated versions of Office all these years actually fork over the money to run a legal version. From experience and many read articles on the matter I can say – probably not; but you can almost be sure that they will be the loudest whiners.
Hey, like this post? Why not share it with a buddy?
Tweet
Recent Comments