From: black.hole.4.spam{at}gmail.com (Don Hills)

In article ,
"Antti Kurenniemi"  wrote:
>
>It'll get funny before it blows up in their face. Think what some Big Boss
>of a Big Company will say when they find out they had to hire an extra 17000
>people just to run around entering some activation codes, and yet another
>12000 people to argue on the phone with MS about which one of those codes
>are pirated and which ones are not.

The way I understand it, VLK customers will have a central licence
management server. It will attach a licence to the key generated from each
machine in the business, up to the maximum purchased. Periodically it will
communicate the database to Microsoft. "Reactivation" due to
hardware replacements etc will be handled by a local sysadmin.

I saw a rumour today that sometime early next year Microsoft will make WGA
mandatory - if you don't have it installed, your copy of Windows stops
working just as if you failed to reactivate it:

- BEGIN QUOTE FROM: -----------------------------------------
http://iplist.blogspot.com/2006/06/ip-interesting-interaction-with.html

I like to review updates before they are installed. The only update that I
have not installed is the latest WGA because of the security issues related
to it.

I called Microsoft support to see if there is a hidden option to say,
"yep, I've got updates turned to manual... it's okay." The rep
said, "No and why wouldn't you want to get the latest updates to
Windows."

I responded with the issues relating to WGA. He spent some time telling me
that WGA was a good thing, etc. I reiterated that I have accepted all the
updates except WGA and just want to review the updates before they're
installed on my machine.

He told me that "in the fall, having the latest WGA will become
mandatory and if its not installed, Windows will give a 30 day warning and
when the 30 days is up and WGA isn't installed, Windows will stop working,
so you might as well install WGA now."

I'm wondering if Microsoft has the right to disable Windows functionality
or the OS as a whole (tantamount to revoking my legitimate Windows license)
if I do not install every piece of software that they send it updates.


- BEGIN QUOTE FROM: -----------------------------------------
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=84

That can't be true, can it? I'm always suspicious of any report that comes
from a front-line tech support drone, so I sent a note to Microsoft asking
for an official confirmation or, better yet, a denial. Instead, I got this
terse response from a Microsoft spokesperson:

  As we have mentioned previously, as the WGA Notifications program
  expands in the future, CUSTOMERS MAY BE REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE.
  [emphasis added] Microsoft is gathering feedback in select markets to
  learn how it can best meet its customers' needs and will keep customers
  informed of any changes to the program.

That's it. That's the entire response.

- END QUOTE -------------------------------------------------

--
Don Hills    (dmhills at attglobaldotnet)     Wellington, New Zealand
"New interface closely resembles Presentation Manager,
 preparing you for the wonders of OS/2!"
    -- Advertisement on the box for Microsoft Windows 2.11 for 286

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