News Munchies
Microsoft Sabotages Its Own Windows XP and Office Software
Originally Posted
Updated
Microsoft is getting serious about protecting its software against copyright violations. Long accused of sabotaging competitors' products, now the software giant has been sabotaging its own!
So many copies of Windows XP and Microsoft Office are being pirated -- some through a stolen unlocking combination that allows users to install the software illegally -- that Microsoft has designed XP updates so they don't load on the illegal copies. Not only that, but illegal users won't be able to download future repairs and patches to the notoriously glitchy operating system from the Microsoft update site.
In the past, Microsoft has used an update against the miscreants, electronically incapacitating Office software that the company had decided was illegal.
What's next? The computer's innards dissolving in a cloud of acidic smoke, like the tapes that used to give the "Mission: Impossible" assignment?