That's just great, another "IT professional" that pins all system frustrations on the end-user. God forbid anyone should ever lodge a formal
complaint, misgiven or not. I can safely say that I will do whatever I can to make sure none of my friends use IT Associates. EVER.
Here's
another one of his gems (bottom of the page).
I have no idea what "WGDA" is.
Could be a mistaken shorthand for Technet or possibly MSDN (also, not everyone speaks English).
Windows Product Activation (PA) monitors whether a given installation of XP has been moved to a different set of hardware, and also keeps track of whether a given Product Key is being activated outside of typical patterns of usage.
"Typical patterns of usage"? WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF DOUBLESPEAK IS THAT? Also, if it's meant to be an interim stop-gap, why give out keys to the universal "I changed my hard drive"? Why not just ream the customers outright? Oh, right, they might COMPLAIN then. Wouldn't want that, would we?
Calling in to a Product Activation Center gives MS an opportunity to verify compliance with the End User Licensing Agreement in circumstances that warrant a check.
First off, WPA is
hardly an effective solution to piracy. It's been cracked for quite some time, to say nothing of the social engineering half of that equation. Security isn't real when your customer service is full of completely naive dolts. Second, who else uses PRODUCT ACTIVATION for their systems? Sun sure doesn't, and I don't see them going belly-up. I've not heard anything of Apple doing this beyond the standard "register for free tech support" spiel. RedHat and Novell don't - beyond standard support fees - and I've yet to hear of them filing for bankruptcy. Actually, the only business I can think of that does anything
remotely close to this is... SCO. As far as the BSA is concerned, they don't respond to EULA violations. If they did, Windows piracy wouldn't be as rampant as it is today. Now providers threatening to drop Windows like a week-old dead mackerel, that's another story.
Why does it surprise you that a commercial organization would take steps to protect its investment in intellectual property?
It doesn't. What surprises people is the amount of abuse this system suffers at the hands of callous corporate bureaucrats who use these ineffective "protections" to extort further funding from the comparatively penniless. NO OTHER HONEST COMPANY SUPPORTS $400 SOFTWARE ON THE BACKS OF LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS.
Computer enthusiasts like you will by definition encounter the "speedbumps" that are put in place to help curb abuse because they are using their computers and their software in a very agressive and active manner, doing a lot of reinstallations and making a lot of hardware changes.
...and computer enthusiasts LIKE YOU are the reason why WPA exists in the first place. I mean, why give our paying customers support when we can bleed them dry and cancel their activation codes when they "start to get uppity"? How the hell can you sleep at night, representing an IT firm that labels power usage as a "very agressive and active manner"? Besides the fact that Windows practically DEMANDS at least a reboot a week into "normal" operations unless you happen to like a mute system.
Since enthusiasts are outside of the norm as far as patterns of usage go, they soon learn to accept these minor speedbumps as just another thing to be accommodated. 5-10 minutes to do a phone activation is not the end of the world you know.
No, it's not the end of the world, but the fact that it's done little to curb piracy should tell you something. Ineffectual solutions are not the way to go for a problem that doesn't need to exist. Also, since YOU seem to pick on Linux users quite a bit, you should know that I left Windows after hitting a few hundred of your so-called "minor speedbumps". Funny how the only thing I experienced after that was driver support issues, which can be traced directly to either manufacturer complacency or corruption.
If you are using the license for XP that you have in accordance with the EULA, there will never be a need for you to afford a new license.
For the time being. Few are concerned about the present. It's the future that causes problems, and the writing's on the wall.
