Microsoft: Pirate software will not be supported
Published: 11 May 2004 13:35 BST
Microsoft has quashed comments by a senior official that its next Windows XP update will run on pirated copies of the operating system.
Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), slated for release by June, boasts major security improvements and is viewed by industry watchers as a milestone in the company's Trustworthy Computing push. It includes a beefed-up version of Windows Firewall, built-in software that blocks pop-up ads and a consolidated interface that allows users to manage the security settings of all Windows components.
Unlike its predecessor Service Pack 1 (SP1), SP2 can be installed on PCs running both original and bootleg copies of Windows XP, a Microsoft executive said recently. This would mark a significant shift in the company's attitude towards piracy as Microsoft has long maintained that counterfeit software harms the entire IT industry, including end users.
"We haven't explicitly done anything to SP2 to exclude it from pirated copies," Microsoft group product manager Barry Goffe said in an interview with Singapore IT weekly Computer Times. "It was a tough choice, but we finally decided that even if someone has a pirated copy of Windows, it is more important to keep him safe than it is to be concerned about the revenue issue," he said in the report.
Excluding pirated copies could aggravate the damage of worms and other virus outbreaks, which ultimately harms legitimate Windows users, Goffe added.
However, the software maker has since clarified that its iron-clad stance towards piracy remains unchanged, and SP2 will be no exception.
"Press reports indicating Windows XP Service Pack 2 will install on pirated or illegal copies of Windows XP are not entirely true," said Dominic Carr, Microsoft Asia-Pacific's senior product manager for Windows.
"Prior to installing, SP2 will check the OS' product ID (PID) against a list of known pirated PIDs. If a PID is found to be invalid, SP2 will not install," Carr told CNETAsia.
The move is likely to affect many users in Asia as the region has long been a hotbed for pirated Microsoft programs. While PID verification in SP2 could swing users towards genuine Windows in the short term, software pirates have been notoriously fast to play catch-up with Microsoft.
For example, soon after the firm released SP1, bootleg copies of Windows XP containing the update surfaced in the region. Even Longhorn, the next version of the Windows OS, sneaked into the market two years before its official launch.
Fran Foo of ZDNet Australia contributed to this report.
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