Top 10 Myths About Product Activation
Product activation will hamper corporate customers’ deployment of software.
Actually, corporate customers should only be minimally impacted, if at all. Licenses acquired by customers through one of Microsoft’s volume licensing programs will not require activation.
Product activation is an invasion of privacy.
Microsoft absolutely respects the privacy of its customers and does not ask for any personally identifiable information to activate a product. Product Activation is completely anonymous.
So it’s anonymous, but you are still requiring information about the make and model of my PC.
To ensure the end user’s privacy, Microsoft uses a one-way mathematical algorithm to create the hardware hash used by Product Activation to create the Installation ID. Once created, the hash information cannot be calculated back to its original values. Hardware information is sent through the algorithm in the software on the PC — not at Microsoft — to create the hash. The raw hardware information is not known or sent to Microsoft. Ensuring end user privacy is a
No. 1 design goal for Microsoft with Product Activation.
Users must have Internet connectivity to activate.
Product Activation provides two methods to activate: Internet and telephone. The Internet method requires that the PC be able to make a connection to the Internet. The telephone method requires the user to provide information to a customer service representative over the telephone.
Counterfeiters are the real piracy problem.
Software piracy comes in many different forms, some more widely known than others. Each type of piracy is unique and often requires unique protection methods. Counterfeiting is a common form of piracy. Others include hard disk loading, Internet pirating and casual copying, or softlifting. Casual copying is the sharing of software between people in a way that infringes on the software’s EULA. An example of casual copying is if someone were to get a copy of Office XP and load it on his or her PC, then share it with a second person who loaded it on his or her PC, then share it with a third person who loaded it on his or her PC, and so on. This form of piracy is very prevalent and has been estimated by some industry trade groups to account for a staggering 50 percent of the economic losses due to piracy. It is this form of piracy, casual copying, that Microsoft is primarily looking to reduce with Product Activation.
Microsoft is addressing the other forms of piracy with other initiatives such as Certificates of Authenticity (COA) that accompany new PCs with genuine licenses, edge-to-edge holograms, educational campaigns and, as needed, enforcement efforts.
Activation is difficult to complete.
Product Activation is actually very simple to complete. It requires just a few mouse clicks for those with Internet connectivity. For those who must activate over the telephone, the process with a customer service representative can be completed in just a couple of minutes. Most users’ response is "that’s it?"
Product Activation keeps users from changing or upgrading their hardware.
Not true at all. Users can change or upgrade their hardware. One of the forms of piracy that Product Activation guards against is hard disk imaging. Not all forms of hard disk imaging are illegal. In the case where a pirate copies data from one PC hard drive to another to illegally run the software on two PCs, Product Activation stops that by forcing the copied software to be reactivated. It does so by comparing the hardware on which it was activated to the hardware on which it is now being booted. If the hardware is substantially different, then reactivation is required. If it is the same or similar, then the software will continue to work. Those who upgrade their PC’s hardware substantially may be asked to reactivate. Reactivation for this reason is easy and can be completed by contacting Microsoft to obtain another confirmation ID.
Product Activation changes the way Microsoft software is licensed.
The underlying principles of Microsoft’s software licenses have not changed. Microsoft’s end user license agreements have always stipulated the number of PCs that software can be installed on. Product Activation does not change that.
Product Activation has already been cracked, or at least it will be cracked very quickly, and therefore is of no anti-piracy benefit.
Actually, Product Activation has yet to be cracked. The so-called "crack" now being passed around the Internet contains a set of instructions for setting a registry key that disables activation. Microsoft made the existence of this registry key public to its technical beta testers back in early February telling them where it was and how to set it to disable activation, and included it as a testing tool.
Still, the intellectual property protection arena is a cat-and-mouse game. All intellectual property protection technologies will be cracked at some point — it’s just a matter of time. The measure of success is not completely stopping software piracy, which is probably an unattainable goal. Success is more likely to be measured in increased awareness of the terms of the license agreement and increased license compliance.
Internet Explorer and Windows 2000 will begin requiring activation as well.
Not true. Internet Explorer 6 does not require activation or activation of the operating system it has been installed on. Some Internet reports have suggested that; however, the registry key detailed in those reports is created by a separate software installation. The registry key is created by the installation of the Terminal Services client software and a connection to a Windows 2000 terminal server; it facilitates the licensing of Terminal Services.
You almost had us. A 2500 word post and you negate every word with two sentences. Anybody who's ever tried to contact Microsoft directly for any reason whatsoever knows exactly what I mean.
What exactly is substantially different?
A new hard drive?
A new motherboard?
Both of which I upgrade during a year.
I admit I am not the ordinary user.
This part, I do not believe. Of course, I'm not an XP customer anyway. 98SE serves all of my needs.