One rule for the rich...
... and another for everybody else, thinks David Dorn of Microsoft's Product Activation nonsense
I've been writing about PC software professionally since 1984 - and for other platforms for four years before that, so over the years I've seen most forms of copy protection come... and then go.
Most notable amongst them were Key Disks and also Dongles. Daft systems, both of them. The Key Disk protection scheme required you to insert a cleverly coded floppy disk in the drive every time you booted a particular program. The program would look for a particular string of characters on the floppy, in a particular place. If it wasn't there, it closed down. It took about five minutes to crack that scheme, and it died on its backside.
Dongles were a nightmare. Little plasticky port-replicator look-alikes for plugging into either a serial or parallel port, they were the easiest thing to plug into the wrong port you could ever imagine. Even when you got them into the correct hole, they'd interfere with printing or modems, and, again, the code which relied upon them was hacked as quickly as you could say 'Ditch the Dongle' - and IT departments everywhere hated them anyway. Thy're pretty much died the death now, too.
Indeed, I thought I'd seen the back of every hair-brained anti-copying device known to man - that was until Microsoft came up with its infamous Product Activation malarkey.
Now, I've already been down this road with other software. There's a very nice piece of kit called Sibelius that is of great use to musicians. In order to make it work past the opening screen, you've got to ring up the factory/head office and get an answer code to the question code that the program displays. Once it's in, it's in and the software runs very nicely. Until you have to change computer or hard disk, that is, or need to re-install it for any reason.
At that point, you're back on the phone, doing the deed again. In fact, when I reviewed it, quite some time ago now, I decided to install it on four machines, each of different spec, to see how well it performed (the range went from lowly sub-entry level to 'OmiGawd I didn't know they made them that fast') on different machines.
The support bods weren't too happy about it, in truth, and it took some talking to the top management to persuade them to give me the codes.
MiS Management
So, now we come to MS doing pretty much the same sort of thing with Product Activation - except there's one major difference. Both Windows XP and Office XP keep on checking your hardware to see what's changed. If either finds enough in the way of alteration, it's get back on the phone time to re-activate the software. Just so you know, here's the list of what Windows XP looks at:
- the display adapter
- the SCSI adapter
- the IDE adapter
- the network adapter MAC address
- your RAM quantity range
- the processor type
- the processor serial number
- your hard disk
- your hard disk's volume serial number
- your CD/DVD device's ID number.
If your PC has no network adapter, then up to three devices can be changed or replaced. If it has a network adapter, then up to five other devices can be changed, assuming that the network adapter isn't. If the NIC is changed, then we're back to three devices.
Now, look at that list. Assume you're running on a standalone, non-networked machine. If you bung another RAM stick in, upgrade your CD drive to a DVD and slot a new Graphics adapter in (all fairly common upgrades), you're going to have to re-activate Windows XP.
Microsoft tells us that we serial changers can have four automatic reactivations per year. Hmmm... that's always assuming that we can get connected with the activation hotlines or the Web, of course.
Businesses, of course, don't have this palaver to go through. They can buy site licenses for five or more machines, such that their versions of XP don't have this Product Activation malarkey attached. You see, business won't stand for this kind of daftness. And Microsoft is, it seems, quite happy about that.
The have nots.
The Product Activation shambles is there to prevent 'casual copying'. That's you giving your mate your XP disks for the weekend, and then him burning a copy for himself, and one for Fred down the street, while he's at it.
It'll also prevent the likes of you and me from having XP on the desktop machine and a copy on the laptop, safe in the knowledge that we haven't broken the license agreement - we're only running one copy at a time. Nope - not any more. MS has changed the way it licenses, as well, to prevent even that.
So, what's likely to happen, then? I'll tell you - there'll be a big market in Corporate code and keys - the sequence of numbers you get on the back of the CD on the yellow sticker. I've already had a couple of phone calls from people I hardly know asking me which version of XP I've got. 'Is it the Corporate version?' comes the cry. And you know what the next question is going to be. My answer is always the same - 'No'.
Now, before anyone starts pointing fingers and laying tongue to names, let me state this very firmly. I am totally against piracy in any way shape or form. I have never, and will never, see any excuse for software theft or theft in any form. I do not condone it or encourage it, and I can see no need for it. To my way of thinking, if you can't afford a particular piece of software, you don't use it. You certainly shouldn't rip it off.
That said, though, Microsoft has benefited from piracy over the years. Word is now the dominant word processor, when for ages both WordStar and WordPerfect ruled the roost. Lotus and its SmartSuite battled against the inexorable rise of Office in vain, because so many folks 'borrowed' their works copy of the disks to use the same software at home that they were using at work - partly because Works has always been so naff and dumbed down in comparison at best, and incompatible with Office at worst.
Now, Office is the only dog, never mind the top dog. Everybody uses it. Not everybody has paid for it, though. Strangely, WordStar got its (then) dominant position by means of piracy, too - it became the de facto standard because it was copied so many times. WordStar Corp knew this, and every so often did an amnesty deal to allow the pirates to go legitimate, for coppers compared to the usual retail price. People did, in their droves, take up the offer.
So, now that MS has the world in its hand, it's decided to force an anti-piracy method on the people it sees as being the easiest target, it seems to me. And it's doomed to failure, for the simple reason that, as I said earlier, corporate code that doesn't have this daftness in it, will find its way out onto the streets, together with the keys to tap in at install time.
Mark my words...
