M$ IE 7 update will drop WGA validation step !
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/10/11/ie-7-update-for-pirated-windows-users
The M$ Internet Explorer Weblog has announced that the latest update to Internet Explorer 7 will drop the Windoz Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation step from the installer.
Sitepoint claim that "although the announcement stops just shy of saying it, the real effect of this move is to allow people running pirated versions of Windoz XP and Windoz Server 2003 to get the IE7 upgrade !"
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/10/11/ie-7-update-for-pirated-windows-users
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But why? I really doubt that would be the company's reasoning. I'd think it would be more do discourage said people from getting open source browsers, really. It's the same thing-- but not quite. I really think that they are choosing the lesser of two evils: allowing this loophole to reopen so that these "pirates" have the opportunity to fall in love (or become dependent, however you wish to look at it) with IE7.
More particularly, I also think the company may be scaling back with the public outcry over WGA and digital copyright protection--- let the RIAA continue to look like a fool, but not ol' Bill Gates and his team. I could be off the mark, but I'm almost sure that it's in part to incredible public distaste of the thing.
There's a lot more to it, I'm sure, than you are simply stating.
What Microsoft seems to be betting on is that a good number of those IE 6 users have not been able to upgrade to IE 7 because they are running pirated copies of Windows (a factor, incidentally, which may also have driven many new users to Firefox).
Looks like I'm not alone in my hunch. Bill Gates may find that his poorly chosen statement years ago that the Internet was not that big of a deal will haunt him as well in overall company opinions of open source. Although he acknowledged its importance in 2001 (see here for article), Senior VP Craig Mundie disparaged it (see here) a mere month before. It's bizarre to read what Gates says when the company is clearly fighting open source on the PR front.
Just a gentle observation: I'm not always sure which are quotations from articles in your blogs, and which are your original words.
Digg, del.icio.us, Redit, and other social networks do similar "reporting", but many who reference articles there (Digg in particular) initially do include a fair bit of commentary. Although it's rarely objective, personal interpretation is a part of of blogging's vibrancy, in my opinion, and so I generally comment as I do to share my perspective on the subject.
http://osde-info.vox.com/library/post/the-proper-way-to-quote-from-other-blogs.html