when did this update get implemented? i've never seen any messages like that and my friends all have pirated versions... my windows came with the pc so i dont have much to worry about but my mates on the other hand... gg haha. i'm sure there willl be some sort of illegal fix for this anyway.

Hahahah. Personally, I find this halarious. The claim that this is a "perminate tattoo" is even more funny. Do you guys remember Half-Life 2's anti-cracking measures? Supposedly the strongest anti-theft security ever released on a product for the general consumsion. And there were pirated copies out for download on the exact day it was released. I'm sure that there are already many patches released to counteract this anoyance.

Still, great for a laugh.

If it's causing such a bad problem for legal users, they'd have to release a patch to fix that patch (sorta strange to me). It's mistakes like that which make me happy to not use Windows anymore at home. It's also funny how it messed up like it does. Microsoft can try as hard as possible to prevent pirated copies, but it won't help much. There will still be many more pirated copies out. Piracy is just about the hardest thing to fight, no matter what company it involves.

Lol, has anyone got the popup yet? lol.. I'm also curious about this, lol, if microsoft could send out a new patch that allows it to detect if the windows operating system is geniune or not, why can't they somehow report these findings back to microsoft and get the person procescuted for owning an illegal copy of windows?

Well, it's not like i want them to do this because then there are tons of people that runs on priating windows wheather they know it or not. Also, what i found really funny is my computer repair teacher (i had to take this class since there wasn't any room in any other class) has a stack of copied cd of Windows 98. LOL...

By they way, how can they tell if the window version is genuine or not? Doesn't it depends on the serial number that you entered when installing window? Well, from what i know, fake generated serial number doesn't work with updates. So if you used a fake number, you are not allow to update your window version. My real question here is, how can they implement the new patch that causes the popup or nagging the users of their guilts? And if the priated windows users used a geniune serial number, then wouldn't patch thing the window version is geniune?

Well, i guess it's time for everyone to learn how to use linx and avoid the troubles. =P

The article was published on April 25, 2006, and it stated the above message, that it will affect the few countries. Hence if you are not staying in that 5 regions, you've probably not see those tatoos on your desktop. Wait till Microsoft releases that update to the whole wide world, then you should see it on your desktop.

Another thing they thought of? It seems pretty lame and childish... Considering the number of things the hackers have already cracked, this will probably be easy for them... Microsoft can't stop this height of piracy... Oh, and aren't they earning enough already? Tsk tsk... Shows how money-hungry they are... Well, sure people need to earn money, but this is a pretty funny way of telling people to stop using pirated material... It's just a pop-up, and it's up to the person's discretion to continue using it or not. No matter how hard they keep trying to prevent it, there will still be a few holes that the hackers can get through. Kinda like a sponge...

This post has been edited by icemarle: May 3 2006, 10:59 AM

I agree, I think the crux of the problem is still Microsoft and big software companies overpricing their products. How on earth are people from 3rd world developing nations going to but the original product when it could cost as much as 1 months salary for some of these people. If Microsoft is going to insist on these ridiculous prices they can't expect people not to come up with cheaper means illegal or otherwise.

Where I come from , unless you buy a brand named computer, people usually ask a shop to build the computer at a lower price and buy an illegal copy of Windows for the store to install for them,it is considered normal practice as everyone thinks that its basically throwing money down the drain to buy original software, besides we have little shops in every neighbourhood selling all kinds of pirated software for US5 per disk and we hardly ever hear of anyone being sent to jail for using pirated software. there is absolutely no incentive to switch to original unless of course you are a big business.

However, if I can purchase the original Windows XP for say US$25, I would consider it as sometimes there are bugs in the pirated copies and updating could be a hassle.

I'm not rich, either and we don't waste money on computers. We have had the same Gateway Windows 98SE for 10 years ( ) and I'm about to re-image it so its gets back to its old speed. My dad bought us a Dell E510 XP Media Center, the past christmas! Now I have wanted a computer since I could remember, that could play games and just work normally, and let me tell you. It was worth the waiting and stuff. But this summer I'm buying a Dell Laptop, but its not fair, to have a some jack*** pirate software, and have me have to purchase it. It does not make and sense at all.




Thats still hacking. And thats not the right thing to do earlier. You wanna know why prices are so high and stuff, and companies are going out of business in the software industry? Its because people crack the software, and pirate it and mass send it out. So the company is paying more to stop that then to build there program. So what can I get honestly today?