Windows Black Screen of [dis]Advantage
p2pnet news view | P2P:- You’ve heard of the Microsoft Blue Screen of Death?
Meet the Black Screen of [dis]Advantage.
Microsoft ‘Windows Genuine [dis]Advantage’ verification system is apparently implementing its very own brand of censorship.
It was introduced in China last week but it, “turns the background of the Windows operating system’s desktop black if the software fails a validation test,” says Reuters, going on:
“The move prompted lawsuit threats and howls of indignation in China, where the vast majority of computer users are believed to be using pirated versions, unwittingly or not.
The news is particularly poignant given that in 1998, talking to other students at the University of Washington business school in 1998, Bill Gates said of China’s software piracy:
“Although about three million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, though. And as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours.
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
Meanwhile, “National Copyright Administration (NCA) Vice-Director Yan Xiaohong said his agency supported ‘the rights-safeguarding move taken by institutions including Microsoft’,” says Reuters, adding:
“Methods to subvert the program were circulated on Chinese blogs and Internet chat-rooms within days of its launch.”
Reuters – Microsoft anti-piracy move irks Chinese official, October 28, 2008
particularly poignant – Bill Gates China sales trip’, July 3, 2004
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October 29th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
All the more reason to install FREE Linux. Comes with over 12,000 plus FREE pieces of software
October 29th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
An Open Source OS is absolutely your best choice. Linux is very usable right now with many different distributions to choose from. ReactOS(windows clone) and Haiku-OS(BeOS clone) are also advancing.
M$ Windoze is bloated, buggy, anti-consumer-rights, overpriced, and sold by a convicted monopolist.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Nailing users of pirated Windows is fair enough. WTF do Microsoft owe people who haven’t bought their product?
The fact that those people would not have bought it anyway, perhaps, due to the price is totally irrelevant. It remains the case that they didn’t pay Microsoft for their product, so Microsoft don’t owe them SQUAT! I’d really like to see a million pirates try to sue Microsoft over this. Yeah right.
Makes a good case for using Linux and avoiding DRM, dontcha think?
October 30th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Try installing Linux on a SATA drive, instead of IDE drive. F**king difficult isn’t the word. A piece of piss with Windows.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Microsoft ‘Windows Genuine [dis]Advantage’ verification system is apparently implementing its very own *****brand of censorship.*****
like how? they not stopping people from saying what they want. people can still use another os or mac and so on
stupid ass comment jon like usual
October 31st, 2008 at 10:22 am
Just install Linux. Then YOU TOO can tell people to open 1970’s style console windows to TYPE their commands manually. If anybody complains just explain to them “the power of the command prompt!!!!!!!!!!!!!” and they will understand.
November 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
” Nailing users of pirated Windows is fair enough. WTF do Microsoft owe people who haven’t bought their product? ”
Interesting the assumption that these people in fact pirated windows.
I have a steady supply of XP users that have bought and paid for XP, that
suddenly fail validation for NO APPARENT REASON.
Microsoft as Judge Jury and executioner .. and NO due process.
Your assumption is just as malignant.
Trusted computing is bullshit as long as no one can trust the ‘watchers’.
Who keeps M$ honest.
What process do THEY use.
Where’s their checks and balances.
Those who assume that everyone is a thief usually feel that way because they themselves are
dishonest.
November 1st, 2008 at 11:57 pm
totaly dred. they no they get sued in the west, thats why they allow unlimited phone activs just by telling ms one computer at a time. i do this myself all the time and have same retale windows that I pay for on lot of pcs
November 2nd, 2008 at 12:01 am
i think ms are doing sinster trial in China if they can get away without geting sude to much and less linux users they will do this all over world
watch space
July 17th, 2009 at 9:25 am
“The Black Screen software : An Anti-competitive Practice by Microsoft”
(18.7.2009)
Singapore must take the view that the global ‘black screen’ measure compulsorily imposed by Microsoft constitutes an act that falls within the domain of anti-competitive practice as envisaged by the Competition Act 2004. The question is whether a rightful owner be allowed by law to obtain unfair competitive edge via contractual advantage to the detriment of an innocent buyer/individual/users ?
Although the Copyright Act 2005 and the Computer Misuse Act 1990 guarantee certain legal rights to the owner, they do not allow the rightful owner carte-blanche freedom to embark on anti-competitive measures with a view to protect his rights to the prejudice-and/or at the expense of consumer rights.
No doubt section 7(1) of CMA’s “without authority or lawful excuse” is a stark reminder to all, but it is by no means an insurmountable wall of defence for Microsoft. If it can be shown that Microsoft themselves had in fact implemented the black screen ‘without proper authority and without lawful excuse’, the imposition of the black screen would be declared as unconstitutional and illegal not only under the Computer Misuse Act but also under section 47(2)(a) and(b) of the Competition Act 2004 pertaining to abuse of dominant position :
47(1) Subject to section 48, any conduct on the part of one or more undertakings which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in any market in Singapore is prohibited. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), conduct may, in particular, constitute such an abuse if it consists in :
(a) predatory behaviour towards competitors; (b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;
(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage; or In any event, the last remedy against the black screen can be found in the law of restitution.
The legitimacy of the black screen (and the Windows Genuine Advantage tool) may be tested in Court-if not in Singapore- it may be initiated in the EU or Australia. The black screen is not the only example of an unfair measure enforced by Microsoft in its global anti-competitive blocking strategy.
……………………….
Jeong Chun phuoc.
Lecturer-in-Law.
Jeongphu@yahoo.com
July 17th, 2009 at 9:46 am
“The Black Screen software : An Anti-competitive Practice by Microsoft”
(18.7.2009)
Singapore must take the view that the global ‘black screen’ measure compulsorily imposed by Microsoft constitutes an act that falls within the domain of anti-competitive practice as envisaged by the Competition Act 2004. The question is whether a rightful owner be allowed by law to obtain unfair competitive edge via contractual advantage to the detriment of an innocent buyer/individual/users ?
Although the Copyright Act 2005 and the Computer Misuse Act 1990(CMA) guarantee certain legal rights to the owner, they do not allow the rightful owner carte-blanche freedom to embark on anti-competitive measures with a view to protect his rights to the prejudice-and/or at the expense of consumer rights.
No doubt section 7(1) of CMA’s “without authority or lawful excuse” is a stark reminder to all, but it is by no means an insurmountable wall of defence for Microsoft. If it can be shown that Microsoft themselves had in fact implemented the black screen ‘without proper authority and without lawful excuse’, the imposition of the black screen would be declared as unconstitutional and illegal not only under the Computer Misuse Act but also under section 47(2)(a) and(b) of the Competition Act 2004 pertaining to abuse of dominant position :
47(1) Subject to section 48, any conduct on the part of one or more undertakings which amounts to the abuse of a dominant position in any market in Singapore is prohibited. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), conduct may, in particular, constitute such an abuse if it consists in :
(a) predatory behaviour towards competitors; (b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;
(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage. In any event, the last remedy against the black screen can be found in the Law of Restitution.
The legitimacy of the black screen (and the Windows Genuine Advantage tool) may be tested in Court-if not in Singapore- it may be initiated in the EU or Australia. The black screen is not the only example of an unfair measure enforced by Microsoft in its global anti-competitive blocking strategy.
……………………….
Jeong Chun phuoc.
Lecturer-in-Law.
Jeongphu@yahoo.com