re: Windows 7 activation update.

James ONeill — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:42:29 GMT

Hmmm. You wouldn't expect me to condone what you do. It is stealing after all.

However, my neighbour is having some building work done, and some materials have been stolen from the site. The person who steals a bagful of sand is one thing - in retail it's called "shinkage", The person who turns up with a truck and takes all the sand, cement, bricks etc is something else.

Pragmatically it's the people who steal in bulk you want to focus on. Especially as you are only stealing from us, and the bulk pirates are also stealing from end users. [And potentially sending out machines pre-infected with malware]. I don't think it's practical to go after the people who do what you do because it is bound to catch some innocent users.

re: Windows 7 activation update.

MirceaKitsune — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 12:32:22 GMT

I willingly use a torrented version of Windows 7. I see nothing wrong with that, but support Microsoft when fighting people that -sell- pirated copies and -lie- they are real. So if this update is not meant to hit on us I hope it will do ok... just please leave users that willingly use cracked versions be, even if we aren't the nicest people around to someone like Microsoft.

But yeah, +1 for making this optional and uninstallable... I find that a surprisingly nice thing for Microsoft to do. If they keep being like this I'll just feel bad and will have to buy Windows 7, since it is either way very good :)