The Annoyances of DRM and Licensing: WGA Down for 24 Hours

I’m a rabid mac evangelist, but…

1) “it assumes a person is guilty until proven innocent.” – I doubt any windows users (besides ones already engaged in DRM debates) feel this is accurate. The activation process is annoying, no doubt, but I seriously doubt your average user will scream in protest ‘Hey! What exactly are you saying Microsoft!? I’m no thief!’. At most, their just slightly annoyed but see the process as a “registration” of sorts.

2) “(Blue screen of death anyone?!)” – Are you saying that failing the activation process causes a BSOD? Or was that just peppered in because the post is about Windows XP. If it’s the former… ouch! That sucks. If it’s the latter… that’s just lame writing.

3) Just an opinion here, but maybe a little picture of the activation bubble would have been nice. Not necessary, but for people that don’t understand the scenario it gives immediate context to the article. Again, that’s just an opinion.

Love this blog! Keep up the (usually) great content. I suppose I’m just being picky on this one.

Microsoft is just using what works to slow piracy. Note that a lot of companies use similar methods. A prime example is Steam which goes further requiring that you are connected to Valve’s server just to play the games you’ve bought. As for XP, Vista, and Office (for the past few years) the “registration” processes is quick most people don’t even notice it if they are connected to the net and they provided means to activate products for those unlucky people you are not connected to the net (it takes a few minutes but is easy to do over the phone). In most cases the software becomes locked down if you do not “activate” it no blue screen of death etc.
In fact as a moderate gamer and computer builder/tweaker i’ve only had the blue screen of death maybe TWICE in SEVEN YEARS.

Out of curiosity Dan when, thats right when not if, Apple starts to use the same “activation” idea will you praise it as a relatively effective anti-piracy method or whine about it some more.

No actually I have railed Apple about their required activation of iWork. It is a product that I do not support and suggest users use NeoOffice. I also don’t buy iTunes songs because I don’t like my songs that I paid for being restricted.

The BOSD was a joke. I am a Windows user about 50% of the time and have not seen a blue screen in over two years.

I despise Adobe for requiring activation and would boycott the product as well if there was an equal alternative. Intuit is the LARGEST offender of activation requirements and I don’t use their products.

If the MacOS required activation I would be the largest critic of it.

We all use operating systems that best fit our lives, I just found it rather troublesome that because of a server glitch that millions of windows users went in to a reduced feature mode because their legitimately purchased OS couldn’t be verified.