"Despite the criticism leveled at Microsoft Corp. after its recent rollout -- and partial rollback -- of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), that tool was just the first phase in the company's latest antipiracy effort.
The broader Genuine Software Initiative will include a similar campaign, built around a tool called Office Genuine Advantage, to fight piracy of Microsoft's dominant desktop applications suite. Microsoft began testing OGA in April and said last week that the company is "absolutely committed" to going forward with the software, although it wouldn't elaborate on when the tool will be officially released.
WGA, which began an escalated rollout in April, has been criticized as spyware for stealthily installing itself on PCs, sending information back to Microsoft and nagging users who refused to install the tool. The software vendor turned off most of those features in late June."
"But it has to be careful, warned Lauren Weinstein, an IT consultant in Woodland Hills, Calif., and co-founder of the privacy advocacy group People for Internet Responsibility. "Microsoft is starting to tread a thin line that has quite an abyss on either side," Weinstein said. "If people feel that Microsoft is acting too aggressively, they'll find some way to go to other products.""
<http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=112472>
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