Topping a sykpe-goat
By Charles Miller

Last week on the subject of the recent service outage at Skype, I wrote, “If you want to stir up a hornet’s nest, just give away something for free…then stop.”

This week Microsoft has gone one better. If you really, really want to stir up a hornet’s nest, try taking away something your customer has legitimately paid good money for.

Last week for 19 hours, a bug in the system caused many legitimate users (Microsoft does not divulge how many users) of Windows Vista and Windows XP to be falsely accused of running pirated software.

The glitch caused users of legally purchased copies of Windows to receive a warning that they were using pirated software. Worse yet, the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation system automatically disabled some Vista features for those users until the problem was fixed.

The online message boards at Microsoft lit up like a Christmas tree. A Microsoft program manager named Phil Liu posted on one of Microsoft’s forums, “Please use acceptable language.” Clearly, some of the opinions posted by frustrated users were not expressed in language appropriate for Atención either.

Vista’s advanced new Aero graphical interface was among the features disabled on the computers falsely accused of running pirated software. User frustration quickly reached significant levels before the problem was fixed.

Just as in the case of the Skype outage two weeks ago, the cause of the problem was not entirely clear. Microsoft’s Mr. Liu wrote, “The cause is unknown at this current time.” That is not exactly reassuring.

Even though the problem at Microsoft was dealt with quickly, there are indications a growing number of Windows users are disinclined to forgive and forget.

Microsoft introduced WGA over two years ago and it has been controversial from day one. The purpose of the program is to check user software and send data back to Microsoft to ensure licenses are valid. The goal is to reduce the widespread piracy of software and perhaps it has done so, but at the cost of customer satisfaction. Some legal users have vociferously protested the technology while software pirates have easily circumvented it.

Users who purchased their software legitimately do not appreciate being inconvenienced. Increasingly they feel they are not being rewarded for their good citizenship, especially when they consider the following news—(M)every indication points to the fact that the only users inconvenienced by this latest glitch were those who were using legal copies of Windows. The irony is that users of pirated software were unaffected.

Microsoft has a long history of simply ignoring consumer complaints and negative publicity; but hopefully this latest problem might be enough to cause them to pay attention to building resentment. A lot of honest users who paid hundreds of dollars for legal copies of software are now asking themselves why they bother to be honest if Microsoft treats them as criminals anyway.

Certainly Microsoft has a right to protect their intellectual property, but clearly the Windows Genuine Advantage program is inconveniencing and alienating paying customers while having a questionable impact on software piracy.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ@SMAguru.com.