Microsoft's anti-piracy system known (and loathed) as Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is set to lose its bite. When Vista SP1 launches in early 2008, WGA will still identify -- ad-nauseam -- what it thinks to be non-legal copies of Vista. However, it will lose its ability to disable said systems. The change was announced in a presentation by WGA senior product manger, Alex Kochis, who said, "Based on customer feedback, we will not reduce user functionality on systems determined to be non-genuine." That should bring a swift end to WGA customer complaints related to false-positives, spyware concerns, or server glitches. Score one point for law-abiding citizens everywhere.

[Via ZDNET, thanks Daniel S.]

Those are the words of Brian Livingstone, a renowned expert on the inner working of Microsoft Windows: in a post on WindowsSecrets.com, he exposes a backdoor route around activation which effectively destroys activation as an antipiracy measure. That, in and of itself, isn't a particularly surprising development (we've already seen two exploits that skip or bypass activation); no, the real story is the fact that the exploit was created by Microsoft itself. The "SkipRearm" process involves some simple editing of Registry files that can "extend the activation deadline of Vista indefinitely." This backdoor around WGA was created to help corporations keep machines working whilst they work under the heavy burden of prepping systems for Vista activation. If they can't do it within Vista's 30 day grace period, they can postpone activation by 30 days up to three times using the "sysprep /generalize" command: SkipRearm can be executed indefinitely. Specifically, Microsoft documentation says "Microsoft recommends that you use the SkipRearm setting if you plan on running Sysprep multiple times on a computer." Now that Windows Activation could potentially help pirates as well as annoy legitimate Windows owners, it's hard to see how Microsoft will be able to continue to justify using this ineffective, draconian system.

[Via ComputerWorld, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Strike three two for Vista's product activation system: the latest Vista activation workaround is called "Timerstop t2a" which works by automatically renewing the 30 day grace period before the user has to "activate" their presumably legit copy of Windows. Besides the obviously malicious undertone to these kind of utilities, we're certain that there are a whole lot of legitimate Vista owners out there that would prefer to go through this admittedly complex process rather than attempt the normal activation procedure. Just like with DRM, anti-piracy PSAs before movies, and heck, even excessive surveillance, innocent people tend not to like it when they're treated as suspects. The lesson for Microsoft is that when people want to pirate software, they will: even in the face of increasingly complex activation systems. A pity then that Redmond's fired up photocopiers technically can't copy a function that -- purposely -- doesn't exist in Mac OS X.

Considering that as recently as a couple of days ago lots of people (including us) were potentially duped into believing that someone had created a keygen utility that churned out working serial numbers for Windows Vista, you'll forgive us for being a little hesitant to recommend the latest Vista crack on the block. Apparently the result of a combined effort by an application cracking group called "Paradox," the utility is actually a "BIOS Emulation Toolkit" that skips the activation process entirely. As always, these kind of programs are an extremely gray area, so we're not going to maintain any illusions here: this utility will be used by individuals to pirate copies of Vista. That said, these kinds of hacks -- if this one actually works -- does a service by pointing out the ineffectiveness of "activation," a process which has caused an enormous amount of annoyance to a lot of consumers that have purchased software legally. Just like every other form of piracy prevention, the only people that really suffer in the end are the innocent users stuck in the middle.

[Via digg]

You've probably noticed that the Internet's been buzzing lately about Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy software that up until recently was "phoning home" user info every day, and now one Brian Johnson of Los Angeles has turned the issue into a legal matter by filing suit against Redmond in U.S. District Court in Seattle. Johnson's attorney Scott Kamber -- who also represented consumers in that class-action suit regarding the Sony rootkit debacle -- is arguing that a recent version of the WGA package, which was rather inconspicuously pushed to users' computers as part of a security update, fits the legal definition of "spyware" because its existence and purpose weren't plainly disclosed to consumers. Microsoft spokesperson Jim Desler counters this argument by pointing out that the WGA tool is not malicious in nature -- which presumably distinguishes it from the "bad spyware" -- and that the "real issue" here is the "industry-wide problem" of software piracy. Still, Microsoft changed the latest version of the tool by beefing up the licensing agreement and eliminating those daily status reports, so even though Desler calls the suit "baseless," we wouldn't be surprised if Johnson ends up with some hush money to prevent the negative publicity that a trial would surely bring.

[Via Slashdot]