Is Genuine Advantage Spyware?

Bob, Brian Livingston's concern was that WGA's early versions showed phone home activity and had the built in capability to self-update and install other software. This without any notification to the user.

I agree entirely that they have every right to expect you to purchase their product if you use it. But treating your customers like criminals is not the way to do it.

EDITOR'S NOTE: What good software does NOT have an auto-update feature? All anti-virus programs do this, Windows itself does this, even Firefox does it! Major red herring...

If you're running tor websites can't always find your ip address, why should microsoft be able to? They could also file a lawsuit to find out your identity if they have your ip and if they won they could get it and then sue you. Whether or not you are pirating their software, anti-piracy should never be grounds for a lawsuit in my book. I'm boycotting them by not buying anymore of their products, and I'm switching to gnu linux. Join me. -P.S. Sometimes software is good partially because it doesn't have an autoupdate feature due to the fact that the newer version of the software is more buggy, more expensive, or just not as good, in my opinion.

Treating your customers like criminals, by default, IS NOT THE HONORABLE WAY TO RUN A BUSINESS. In fact, I choose to run far from companies that do so.

This ridiculous concept is becoming common practice in both the brick & mortar world and the software world and I for one am sick to death of being treated like a common criminal and thief. If this is the new future of commerce, I opt out.

Give me a break Bob!!! Microsoft as with all of mega companies, makes BILLIONS of dollars from all of us that pay for their underdeveloped crap-o-software! More power to those who continue to use "illegal" software. Maybe, someday, Billy G. will start releasing quaility software.
Also, Bob, you stated, "Piracy is a HUGE problem in the software industry and results in higher costs to those who DO play by the rules." Now Bob, both you & I know that this is a bunch of BS. A retail copy WinXP cost today almost exactly what it did when it was released. The same goes for MS Office. As a software Analyst I can understand your argument... well actually I don't. Bob, let's keep it real this holiday season!

EDITOR'S NOTE: You applaud those who steal software, and want me to "keep it real"? Hmmm...

Heh, it was always likely this little gem was gonna create some 'talkback' ;-) . I can kind of see both sides of the argument but lean towards Microsofts attempts to protect it's product/business whilst agreeing totally that they went about it totally the wrong way - you would think they would have learned by now... thus creating yet another 'hate MS' whirlwhind.

I have no issue with them having an update process that checks to make sure the copy of windows on your machine is genuine and licensed. The update tool in itself is kind of running just like an AV prog, ensuring the OS is protected. In fact I run a support business and it came in rather handy when we discovered that my predecessor with one of my clients, let's just call him Captain Dodgy, had installed bogus copies of windows in a business environment - they were still paying for this recently in downtime. WGA helped to identify these machines so we could fix the problem.

I think most of the outcry on this is thanks to MS's deployment of it and secrecy combined with people's already hostile views towards them. It added up to people thinking it's just MS playing Big Brother again - but like you have said Bob, no one bats an eyelid when an AV prog does it. Of course, the other option if you are that miffed with it, is to do as Anonymous did and don't use their product ;-)

This past May I was one of those people who had a false positive. I had Windows XP on my system for over a year and the only change I made to my computer was I resized my windows partition and installed Linux in a dual-boot setup. When I tried to run Windows XP again, I was greeted with a message that I need to call an 800 number to re-activate my copy of XP. Even worse, I could no longer access any of my XP files because WGA wouldn't allow me to use windows XP until I validated it. I didn't appreciate being accused of having a pirated copy of Windows XP and even worse being forced to call a number that was often busy and not a 24-hour number just to be able to access my own files! After 2 days I was able to get through and was given a several digit number to re-activate my Windows XP. As a Computer Science Graduate, I understand the issues regarding software piracy but Microsoft has gone too far with WGA in my opinion.

You should never be locked out of your own files just because the OS has an anti-piracy detector and if it gives out a false positives locks the OS from use. If they are going to force WGA on users then they may consider making the 800 number a 24 hour/7-days-a-week number and have more operators to answer the calls from people locked out of their operating system and their own personal files! The way WGA operates is like a store having security guards detain you if they think you stole something and refusing to let you leave until you prove you didn't steal anything even if they have no evidence that you stole anything-they just think you may have stolen something. Would you go to a store that treated you like that? Unfortunately, you can't just leave Windows. It is the dominant OS that you must use to some extent.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I've never heard of people being locked out by WGA. It only supposed to present a popup warning you to validate your system. Anyone else have this problem?

I'd like to respond to the editors note. I was inaccurate in saying that I was locked out completely. I was still able to log in but from what I remembered, I had some kind of reduced functionality. I would log in and my desktop icons would be gone and some software wouldn't work including MS office. I think the message I received may have been different from the one shown above. The message did say that I had a possible invalid copy of XP but I think it was an activation screen and said that I had 30 days to re-activate my copy of XP with a valid set of keys and gave me the 800 number to call for a valid set of keys. So I cannot say if this was a WGA problem or if somehow my activation information was corrupted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Whether you post this or not doesn't matter, since I ran across this article by accident, and probably won't be back.

My comment: Genuine Advantage IS, indeed, spyware. It's one thing for the system to "phone home" when it's first installed - quite another for it to check once every two weeks, never mind once a day! What's going to happen, anyway? A valid install will suddenly become a pirated copy overnight? I would never have objected to that initial check, nor would I have objected to it checking when it needed to update something in the system. There is absolutely no good reason for MS to "phone home" in any other circumstance.

My valid copy of XP stopped being updated when MS tried to force GA down my throat. My new lap top is going to have Ubuntu and KDE on it. MS' attitude is responsible, in no small part, for people becoming disgusted and either abandoning Windows completely, or doing things they wouldn't otherwise ever do. The more I talk to people, the more people I find who have had enough of MS.

YES, IT IS A SPYWARE. ANYTHING UNSOLICITED THAT ENTERS ANY COMPUTER WITH THE INTENTION OF KNOWING/LEARNING ANY INFORMATION IS DEFINITELY A SPYWARE.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ouchie, that's hard on the eyes. Hit that CapsLock key once in a while, okay?

I agree with one point regarding WGA, and that is Microsoft does have every right to protect its intellectual property.
But here are the problems with WGA.
1. It doesn’t work and doesn’t prevent piracy. This problem alone should be enough to abandon the WGA effort.
2. Unnecessary code. It is unnecessary code and like any other code you must patch support, update etc. Wasted time, resources and money on a piece of software that offers no protection for Microsoft or value to the consumer.
3. I have no problem running WGA and I read and agreed to the EULA. It’s not enough that I have to update it but when I go to download Defender I must download yet another WGA. Then I have to validate for all other requiring WGA there after. As if that is not enough then you get to repeat the loop with Office. Where is exactly is the “advantage” for Microsoft or me? Coincidentally, software pirates are missing out on all of these “advantages”.
I will spare you my rant on Vista. Otherwise, you have a great site with great information.