With the recent RRoD (Red Ring of Death) court case in Sacramento still dogging Microsoft, the last thing the Windows behemoth needed was another controversy. That too, one that could span a nation-wide outrage.
Nonetheless, along a controversy has come and span an entire nation – a super power – it has. The “Genuine Windows Advantage” plan was introduced to combat claims that more than 200 million Chinese users were using counterfeit MS software, purposefully or not. Does the plan bestow better performance, a more stream-lined feature system, regular useful updates or free Caturday pics? The answer, surprisingly, is yes (minus the lolcats). At least according to the firm’s web page.
But if you validate your copy online and it’s not the real McCoy, your screen goes black. Is this a software lockout or hardware malfunction? As of now, no one knows. Given Microsoft is capable of deleting your XBox BIOS if you play online with a modded system, anything is possible. As an angry Sina.com blogger put it,
“Why is Microsoft automatically connected with my computer? The computer is mine! Microsoft has no right to control my hardware without my agreement.”
Chalk up another plan from another software titan that looked really good on paper. However, several Chinese citizens aren’t wasting any time in labeling this an abuse of their consumer rights. Dong Zhengwei, a Beijing lawyer, coined Microsoft as,
“[The] biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users’ computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority… Microsoft’s measure will cause serious functional damage to users’ computers and, according to China’s criminal law, the company can stand accused of breaching and hacking into computer systems.”
Microsoft defended the program on its site, calling it a, “commitment to help protect its intellectual property and to help you avoid problems before they happen.” The company also told Reuters,
“The purpose … is to help our customers to determine (if) genuine software is installed on their computers.”
If people had bothered to check whether they were purchasing a legal copy of the game in the first place, and not in their friendly neighbourhood version of our Palika Bazaar, would there be any less outrage? Doubtful. Unfortunately, it’s the ordinary consumers who are most affected – the ones who purchase pirated software (knowingly or otherwise), but don’t actively pirate it themselves. Let’s face facts: nothing from software keys to Steam to DRM has ever successfully halted the real pirates. If Microsoft is serious about providing quality service and products to the nation, then as Zhengwei states, “they should target producers and sellers of fake software, not users”.
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