Posted on 10/22/2008 7:02:36 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Microsoft sued in China for black screen of death
WGA wins more enemies
By John Oates Get more from this author
Posted in Software & Security, 22nd October 2008 11:42 GMT
A Chinese lawyer has filed a legal complaint against Microsoft for installing Windows Genuine Advantage on his computer. He has asked the Ministry of Public Security to file criminal charges against Microsoft.
Dong Zhengwei accused the company of hacking into people's computers. He said: "I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property but it is taking on the wrong target with wrong measures.
"They should target producers and sellers of fake software, not users. The authorities should take action to protect citizens' property and privacy rights," he continued according to China Daily.
(Excerpt) Read more at channelregister.co.uk ...
What are the odds of ANYONE in China owning a legitimate copy of Windows?!
I cringed when I read what “Windows Genuine Advantage” was...
It means it checks to see if you have a legit copy of Windows and shuts down your ocmputer if you don’t
Who is this an ‘advantage’ for besides Microsoft? I have all legit copies so I don’t care (much) except for the hideous Orwellian name (double-speak) they adoptied.
I'll give you one better - if you have a genuine copy, but then have certain disk errors resulting in any corruption to the file it uses to check - it will shut you down too.
Further, I have heard of folks who have made substantial upgrades to their PC only to get that same black screen.
How dare you white round eyes stop superior Chinaman from copying and stealing your property! It Chinamans right to steal everything and make infer copy of everything and pass off as glorious triumph of China, we get back you though, we poison the chair you sit on,the food you eat and the medicine you take,..HAHAHAHAH China greatest country on earth!
Microsoft has 100% market share in China. Oddly enough, they get 100% market share by selling only 1 copy of their software!
When I was in Indonesia a few years ago, software was selling for a fixed price per disk. I think it was about $1 US per disk. And, of course, no fancy wrappings or boxing.
No likee? Install Linux instead.
I totally missed that story. Funny!
What operating system won't stop working if you have a hardware failure that corrupts essential operating system files?
Further, I have heard of folks who have made substantial upgrades to their PC only to get that same black screen.
Well Windows actually is licensed to run on a single machine, and if you perform substantial enough upgrades you are in effect then running in on a different machine than you originally loaded it.
However, at worst you might have to call Microsoft, complain, and they will give you a new activation code.
Their purpose really is to keep people from loading the same copy on a number of different machines (in cases of large scale pirating operations thousands of machines) rather than stop individuals from upgrading their machines.
In the case of these people in China, most are probably using pirated copies. Some people may have pirated the software themselves, others may have purchased pirated copies from others. In either case Microsoft is justified in shutting down that software. If they don't shut down the software, then people there will have basically no incentive to purchase a legal copy. Those pirating the software on a large scale will continue to do so as long as they have customers.
If they sell software that doesn't work, their customers will dry up considerably, and the government might even step in and do something about them.
I'm sure Windows is very expensive for most Chinese people. However, they really aren't forced to use it. They can always use Linux, or if their great communist government think it's so essential to their worker's paradise they can use government money to develop an operating system.
LOL! So true!
So if I put new fenders, new seats, a new engine, a new transmission and new bumpers on my car do I have to re-register it with the DMV?
Of course not. It's the same car. And if I buy a license to use an OS on a computer and I change parts in the computer, it's still the same computer, no matter what Microsoft's marketing department says.
Not sure what the laws are in N.C., but here in MN you can’t rebuild a vehicle around the VIN tag and not expect to have it inspected.
So if I buy a Mac I can throw OSX on any box I want?
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